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THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 


«,  »    e  *■  •  >,   "re* 


GENERAL   KAMIO 

Commander-in-chief  of  tlie  allied  forces  in  the  Kiaochow  campaign.  The  first 
representative  of  the  yellow  race  to  hold  command  over  a  white  force  in  battle 


THE  FALL  OF 
TSINGTAU 

WITH   A   STUDY   OP 

japan's   AMBITIONS 

IN  CHINA 

By  JEPFEESON  JONES 

WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


BOSTON   AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

dte  Uliberinbe  prejtfji  Cambritige 

1916 


1 


A 


COPYRIOHT,   1915,   BY  JEFFERSON  JONES 
ALL   RIGHTS    RESERVED 

Published  October  iqi^ 


TO 
MY   FATHER 


324951 


PREFACE 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  changes  to  be 
wrought  in  Christendom  by  the  greatest  of 
wars  will  be  found,  not  in  Europe  or  in  Europe's 
dependencies,  but  in  the  Far  East.  The  des- 
tiny of  as  many  Chinese  as  there  are  white  hu- 
man beings  in  all  Europe  may  be  determined 
by  the  event  of  August,  1914. 

In  the  following  pages  I  have  attempted  to 
record,  as  a  disinterested  observer,  just  what 
happened  in  the  Orient  from  the  time  Europe 
took  up  arms  and  Japan,  as  to  the  policy  she 
was  to  play,  was  left  alone  in  Asia.  That 
Japan's  part  in  the  seizure  of  the  German  pro- 
tectorate of  Kiaochow  was  essentially  a  blind 
move  in  the  making  over  of  the  Celestial  King- 
dom into  a  dependency  of  Japan,  cannot  be 
doubted  by  any  one  who  follows  closely  the 
moves  of  the  Tokyo  Government  from  the 
opening  of  the  European  war  until  China,  after 
much  harassing,  acceded  to  the  demands  of 
Japan  in  May. 

vii 


PREFACE 

While  China  may  nominally  be  in  possession 
of  many  of  its  sovereign  rights,  the  fact  is,  the 
power  which  controls  Tokyo,  for  all  intents 
and  purposes,  now  controls  the  Government  at 
Peking.  Events  yet  to  take  place  in  the  Far  East 
may  be  depended  on  to  prove  this  assertion. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  China,  we  believe,  will 
yet  be  a  nation  —  independent,  possessing  sov- 
ereign rights,  and  governed  by  its  own  people. 
For  the  Chinaman  remains  a  Chinaman.  De- 
prive him  of  his  country,  isolate  him  from  his 
people,  and  whether  you  find  him  in  Caracas, 
Cape  Town,  or  Halifax,  he,  and  his  generations 
that  follow,  will  cling  to  the  customs  of  his 
former  country.  The  Chinese  have  not  learned 
what  patriotism  is.  They  will  in  time.  Then 
let  a  leader  arise  to  join  in  one  cause  the  four 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  people  of  China; 
let  patriotism  once  be  grasped  by  them  after 
repeated  humiliations,  such  as  have  already 
been  their  lot  in  the  last  thirty  years,  and  then 
one  will  recall  the  words  of  Napoleon,  who  said 
of  China,  "There  lies  a  sleeping  giant.  Let  him 
sleep;  for  when  he  moves  he  will  move  the 
world." 

viii 


PREFACE 

Under  the  Tokyo  domination,  China  is  bound 
to  learn  by  experience  what  it  is  to  possess  in- 
dependent and  sovereign  rights;  self-interest 
and  the  "squeeze"  will  become  obsolescent 
words  in  the  Chinese  vocabulary,  and  gradu- 
ally the  nation  that  produced  the  philosopher 
Confucius  will  take  on  a  national  conscious- 
ness from  which  a  truly  awakened  China  will 
spring,  and  above  all  a  China  which  will  com- 
mand from  the  world,  not  humiliating  and 
jealous  designs,  but  thorough-going  respect. 

From  my  experience  as  a  resident  in  Tokyo, 
I  feel  there  is  much  in  the  following  pages  that 
will  strike  the  supersensitive  hearts  of  the  Jap- 
anese as  an  indication  of  my  unfriendliness  to 
the  Nippon  Kingdom.  This  is  an  impression 
which  I  do  not  wish  for,  as  I  think  the  Japan- 
ese a  people  of  great  ability  and  a  nation  the 
most  patriotic  and  one  of  the  most  efficient  in 
the  world.  My  objection  lies  only  against  the 
diplomacy  practiced  by  Japan  during  and  since 
the  siege  of  Tsingtau,  believing  that  it  in  no  de- 
gree reflects  credit  on  the  glory  of  the  Rising 
Sun.  I  base  this  statement  upon  the  very 
words  and  actions  of  Japan  herself;  inconsist- 

ix 


PREFACE 

ent  words  and  actions  which  require  no  special 
emphasis  from  an  observer  in  the  Far  East. 

As  I  write  this  there  has  arisen  opposition  in 
the  Diet  of  Japan,  which,  like  all  oppositions 
where  bureaucracy  controls,  does  not  carry 
much  weight.  It  has  denounced  the  Govern- 
ment's Chinese  policy  as  one  which  has  thrown 
a  blight  on  the  prestige  of  the  nation.  One  of 
its  radicals  has  publicly  denounced  Baron 
Kato,  Foreign  Minister,  as  a  "traitor"  to  his 
Government.  Cabinet  Ministers  have  been 
called  upon  to  explain  certain  actions  of  the 
Government  in  Japan,  all  of  which  has  fur- 
ther brought  out  the  inconsistency  of  Japan's 
diplomacy. 

For  example,  in  the  opposition's  denuncia- 
tion of  Japan's  foreign  policy,  Mr.  Motoda, 
ex-Minister  of  State,  referred  to  the  Govern- 
ment's rushing  troops  and  a  battleship  to 
China  during  the  May  breach  in  the  negotia- 
tions on  the  twenty-one  demands,  as  a  forceful 
*' threat"  upon  China.  In  reply  to  this.  Baron 
Kato  said  that  Japan  was  not  increasing  her 
troops  in  China  as  a  threat,  but  the  transaction 
was  merely  an  exchange  of  guards.    But  as 


PREFACE 

there  was  no  exchange  in  troops,  —  that  is,  the 
troops  in  China  did  not  return  to  Japan  after 
the  new  troops  arrived,  —  Mr.  Tokohami,  ex- 
president  of  the  Imperial  Railroad  Board,  be- 
came more  inquisitive  and  called  upon  Lieu- 
tenant-General  Oka,  the  Minister  of  War,  to 
explain  before  the  Diet  just  why  the  Govern- 
ment had  sent  fresh  troops  into  China.  To 
this  the  Japanese  Minister  of  War  replied  that 
it  was  because  of  disturbances,  an  answer 
wholly  aside  from  Baron  Kato's  statement.  But 
the  opposition  in  the  Diet  pressed  for  the  an- 
swer and  questioned  Minister  Oka  as  to  what 
disturbances  in  China  the  troops  had  been 
rushed  to  put  down.  At  length  Oka  replied 
there  had  been  no  disturbances  in  China  war- 
ranting the  dispatch  of  fresh  troops,  but  there 
had  been  a  likelihood  of  friction.  To  every  for- 
eigner in  Japan  who  knows  that  the  Japanese 
exchange  of  guards  takes  place  annually  in  De- 
cember, this  measure  taken  by  Tokyo  during 
the  days  in  May,  when  Japan  had  warned 
China  that  "harsh"  steps  would  be  taken  un- 
less the  latter  acceded  to  the  demands  then 
under  negotiation  in  Peking,  there  is  but  one 

xi 


PREFACE 

answer,  one  reason,  as  to  the  wherefore  of 
the  hasty  dispatch  of  troops  into  Asia  by- 
Japan. 

Since  that  date  Premier  Okuma's  Cabinet 
has  resigned  and  Japan  is  torn  internally  with 
political  strife.  The  Britisher  in  Shanghai, 
Peking,  Manchester,  and  the  other  industrial 
centers  of  Great  Britain,  is  disturbed  at  the 
actions  of  her  ally  in  the  Far  East,  and  presses 
his  Government  in  London  for  an  understand- 
ing. The  utmost  calmness  over  the  recent  turn 
of  events  in  the  Far  East  is  the  only  answer 
that  is  allowed  to  escape  the  House  of  Parlia- 
ment in  London.  Meanwhile  those  far-sighted 
rulers  of  Japan  —  the  Elder  Statesmen  — 
seem  to  catch  the  future  trend  of  events,  for  in 
July  they  were  called  together  and  considered 
the  formation  of  an  alliance  with  Russia,  simi- 
lar to  the  Anglo-Japanese  alliance.  In  all  prob- 
ability definite  action  will  be  postponed  until 
the  treaty  of  peace  in  Europe  or  until  the  expi- 
ration of  the  British  alliance. 

With  Russia,  long  a  seeker  for  the  partition 
of  China,  allied  with  Japan,  events  of  interna- 
tional importance  seem  destined   to  follow. 

zii 


PREFACE 

Will  Russia's  long-sought-after  open-the-year- 
round  Pacific  port  be  a  factor  in  the  alliance? 
Will  Taku,  the  port  of  Tientsin  in  northern 
China,  come  under  Russian  control  with  the 
consent  of  Tokyo,  as  rumor  has  it?  In  the  mean 
time  Japan's  domination  of  China;  the  recon- 
sideration of  the  demands  at  Peking  which 
Japan  explicitly  labeled  in  May  as  only 
"postponed";  the  "open  door"  in  China  and 
its  latch;  the  treaty  of  peace  in  Europe,  which 
will  also  terminate  the  Kiaochow  aflFair,  and 
the  proposed  Russian  alliance  —  upon  the  out- 
come of  these  questions  does  the  follower  of 
events  in  the  Far  East  look  with  eagerness. 
As  peace  day  by  day  nears  its  realization  in 
Europe,  the  clouds  gather  toward  Asia,  and 
with  them  a  silence  suggestive  of  the  lull  be- 
fore the  storm. 

In  closing,  I  wish  to  express  my  thanks 
and  appreciation  to  General  Kamio,  com- 
mander of  the  Allied  forces  at  Tsingtau,  to 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Haraguchi,  and  to  Mr. 
Zumota,  civil  attache  of  the  Japanese  army, 
for  their  many  courtesies  extended  to  me 
while  within  the  lines  of  their  army;  also  to 

xiii 


PREFACE 

Mr.  Post  Wheeler,  Mr.  B.  W.  Fleisher,  and 
Mr.  Carl  Crow,  my  grateful  acknowledgment 
for  their  assistance  in  getting  me  to  the  war 
front  at  Kiaochow. 

J.  J. 

Minneapolis,  August,  1916. 


CONTENTS 

I.  Japan's  Dream  of  Domination  ...      3 

II.  Preuminaries  to  the  Declaration  of  War    15 

in.  The  Violation  of  Neutrautt    ....    40 

IV.  The  Advance  of  the  Japanese  Army     .      .49 

V.  Closing  in  the  Offensive 55 

VI.  The  Germans  withdraw  to  Tsingtau    .      .61 

Vn.  The  Beginninq  of  the  Siege      ....    70 

Vlll.  The  Fleet  bombards  the  City   ....    78 

IX.  The  Surrender 87 

X.  After  the  City's  Fall 94 

XI.  Taking  Possession 106 

Xn.  Sanitation  and  Discipline Ill 

XTTT.  Observations 116 

XIV.  Japan  and  America:  Peace  or  War?      .      .  122 

XV.  BusHiDO  vs.  Great  Britain 141 

XVI.  What  Germany  did  in  Ejaochow     .      .      .  153 

XVII.  Japan  and  her  Game  est  China  .      .      .      .170 

XVin.  The    Passing    of   China    as    a    Sovereign 

Nation 182 

XIX.  The  Restoration  of  Kiaochow  ....  208 

XX.  The  Enigma  among  Nations      .      ,      .      .211 


ILLUSTEATIONS 

General  Kamio,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Al- 
lied Troops  in  the  Kiaochow  Campaign      Frontispiece 

General  Yamashita,  Chief  of  the  Japanese  Staff    32 

Japanese    Infantrymen,    showing    the    Equipment 

THAT  MAKES   UP   THE  FlFTY-PoUND   PaCK-SaCK    .         .      32 

Japanese  Aeroplane  preparinq  fob  a  Flight  over 
THE  City  of  Tsingtau 50 

The  Moltke  Barracks  at  Tsingtau,  showing  the 
Work  of  Bombs  from  the  Japanese  Aeroplanes    50 

On  the  March  through  a  Chinese  Village  in 
Kiaochow 58 

Trophy  Relics  from  the  Franco-Prussian  Wks, 
USED  in  the  Defense  of  Tsingtau      .      .      .      .    5& 

Headquarters  of  the  General  Staff  of  the 
Japanese  Forces  at  Tschang-tsun      ....    70 

Tsingtau  as  it  appeared  from  the  Japanese  Staff 
Office  at  Tschang-tsun  on  the  Morning  of 
October  31 70 

Japanese  Supply  Column  on  the  Way  to  the  Rear 
Line  on  the  Day  of  the  Opening  of  the  Siege      76 

Japanese  Staff  Officers  viewing  the  Operations 
OF  the  Siege  from  the  Top  of  Prince  Heinrich 
Berg 76 

Quarters  of  the  Japanese  Staff  Officers  during 
THE  Closing  Days  of  the  Siege 82 

xvii 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Two  German  Machine-Guns  on  the  Redoubt  Walls 
of  the  tsingtau  forts 82 

German  Barbed- Wire  Entanglements  along  the 
Ria)ouBT  Walls 90 

General  Horiuchi  on  the  Crest  of  Moltke  Fort, 

WHICH  he  and  his  MeN  CAPTURED  ....     90 

The  Foot  of  the  Casemate  Walls  Thirty  Min- 
utes AFTER  the  Surrender 98 

The  Moltke  Barracks  after  the  Surrender  .      .    98 

Japanese  Buglers  announcing  the  Triumphant 
Entry  of  the  Japanese  Troops  into  Tsingtau  .  108 

Paying  Respect  to  the  Souls  of  the  Japanese 
Dead 108 

A  British  Sentry  at  Tsingtau 142 

Chinese  Coolies  at  Work  on  the  Portable  Army 
Railroad 142 

Christ  Church,  one  of  the  Few  Buildings  in 
TsmGTAu  to  go  Unscathed  through  the  Siege  162 

General  Barnardiston  and  the  British  Expedi- 
tionary Force  passing  in  Review  before  Gen- 
eral Kamio  on  the  Entry  of  the  Allied  Troops 
into  Tsingtau.  Showinq  the  Prince  Heinrich 
Hotel  used  as  a  Hospital 162 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

CHAPTER  I 

japan's  dream  of  domination 

The  fall  of  Tsingtau  and  the  wiping-out  of 
the  German  colonies  in  Asia  and  in  the  Pacific, 
at  any  other  time  than  as  a  side  happening  in 
the  greatest  of  wars,  would  have  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  whole  world.  With  the  rapid 
unfolding  of  events  in  Europe  during  early 
August,  1914,  the  nations  focused  attention  on 
the  continent,  where  the  largeness  of  events 
had  the  eiBFect  of  making  minor  the  develop- 
ments in  the  Far  East.  The  passing  of  Ger- 
many from  Asia,  however,  is  of  great  interna- 
tional importance,  for  from  it  there  may  be 
traced  the  future  remapping  of  Asia  and  even 
the  dissolution  of  China  as  a  nation. 

Japan's  participation  in  the  European  war 
and  the  events  that  followed  may  be  divided 
into  two  parts;  first,  the  "game"  she  played 
in  going  to  war;  second,  the  actions  of  her 
army  in  the  overthrow  of  Germany  in  Asia. 

3 


'.-'rAf'THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

In  discussing  the  first  of  these  divisions,  it  is 
necessary  to  note  the  "sayings"  of  the  Jap- 
anese statesmen  in  conjunction  with  the  ac- 
tions that  followed.  In  this  way  only  will  it  be 
possible  to  reach  an  intelligent  conclusion.  It 
is  not  what  we  say  we  will  do,  but  what  we  do, 
that  really  counts,  and  in  no  relation  does  this 
rule  apply  more  positively  than  in  diplomatic 
dealings.  It  will  not  be  diflBcult  to  discover 
that  Japan's  part  in  the  European  war  was  not 
for  the  "peace  of  the  Far  East,"  as  declared  by 
her  diplomats  at  the  outset,  but  a  move  in  her 
ambition  to  dominate  China. 

The  opening  of  hostilities  between  Japan 
and  Germany  in  August,  1914,  gave  to  Japan 
another  opportunity  to  express  in  words  just 
what  were  her  motives  in  going  to  war,  and  it 
afforded  opportunity  also  for  the  distribution 
in  publications  in  America  and  Great  Britain 
of  frequent  references  to  Japan's  "love"  for 
China. 

"We  have  always  stood  and  will  continue  to 
stand  for  the  territorial  integrity"  and  "neu- 
trality" of  China,  writes  Count  Okuma,  Pre- 
mier of  Japan,  at  the  opening  of  the  war.  By 

4 


JAPAN'S  DREAM  OF  DOMINATION 

those  unaquainted  with  Far  Eastern  politics, 
and  especially  those  of  Japan,  this  statement  by 
a  Japanese  statesman  may  have  been  read 
with  confidence.  However,  those  familiar  with 
Japanese  affairs  do  not  accept  such  statements 
as  conclusive. 

Many  times  before  has  Japan  vouched  for 
the  territorial  integrity  and  neutrality  of 
China.  We  have  followed  her  actions  only  to 
find  that  the  declarations  of  her  statesmen 
were  mere  diplomatic  nothings,  their  actions 
the  exact  opposite  of  their  printed  resolutions. 
For  these  reasons  the  official  utterances  of  the 
Tokyo  Government,  on  the  opening  of  hostili- 
ties against  Kiaochow,  came  and  went  without 
leaving  sincere  impression. 

"What  is  Japan's  game?"  was  the  ques- 
tion passed  among  foreigners  in  the  Japanese 
capital  late  in  August,  1914.  A  step  in  the  ac- 
quisition of  China,  was  of  course  the  answer, 
but  many  accepted  Japan's  statements,  this 
time  with  more  faith.  With  Great  Britain  as 
her  ally,  they  said  Japan  would  play  with  her 
cards  on  the  table.  Later  events  proved  that 
Japan  was  playing  her  usual  concealed  game. 

5 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

In  all  diplomatic  tangles  in  the  Far  East  for 
the  last  twenty  years,  China  has  paid  the  bill, 
whether  she  has  been  involved  in  the  trans- 
action or  not.  All  the  Powers  have  gone  on 
record  as  standing  for  the  territorial  integrity 
of  China,  and  the  preservation  of  China's  neu- 
trality, but  there  has  been  but  one  Power,  in 
its  dealings  with  China,  that  has  always  backed 
guaranties  by  actions,  not  words  —  the  United 
States. 

During  the  above  period,  while  Japanese 
statesmen  were  addressing  the  world  to  the 
efifect,  as  Baron  Kato  recently  put  it,  that 
"Japan  maintains  to  protect  the  peace  of  the 
Far  East"  and  to  "guard  China  from  foreign 
encroachments,"  her  Government  has  taken 
from  China,  first,  Formosa;  then  the  Liaotung 
Peninsula;  next,  Korea;  and  now  —  shall  we 
say  Shantung? 

While  Japan's  statesmen  have  been  pro- 
claiming that  Japan  is  a  friend  to  China,  that 
she  bears  no  ill-will  against  her,  their  hands 
have  been  slyly  going  into  the  pocket  of  China, 
and  bit  by  bit  has  Celestial  territory  been 
taken.   Is  it  to  be  wondered  that  during  the 


JAPAN'S  DREAM  OF  DOMINATION 

recent  war  in  the  Far  East  the  foreigner  should 
look  with  distrust  upon  the  actions  of  Japan? 

Sunday,  August  23,  the  day  of  Japan's  dec- 
laration of  war  upon  Germany,  found  the 
Japanese  fleets  in  a  semicircle  in  the  Yellow 
Sea,  making  preparations  for  running  the 
blockade  to  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow.  Still  farther 
north,  off  the  Korean  archipelago,  Japanese 
transports  had  already  sailed  bearing  three 
divisions  of  the  Imperial  regiments.  The  Jap- 
anese Minister  at  Peking  at  once  started  nego- 
tiations for  fixing  the  war  zone  about  Kiao- 
chow, Germany's  protectorate  in  Shantung, 
Tsingtau  being  the  capital. 

China  proposed  that  the  said  zone  should 
not  extend  farther  westward  than  20  li  to  the 
east  of  Wei-hsien,  but  Japan  objected  to  this, 
and  argued  that  such  a  boundary  would  be 
difficult  to  observe,  as  they  might  be  con- 
sidered "to  have  violated  China's  neutrality" 
if  a  few  of  the  Japanese  troops  wandered  be- 
yond this  boundary.  China,  however,  de- 
clined to  modify  her  proposal,  and  eventually 
Japan   acceded    to  her  wishes,  adding  that, 

7 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

while  no  troops  would  occupy  the  railroad  be- 
yond the  war  zone,  it  might  be  found  necessary 
to  send  oflScers  to  Wei-hsien  for  the  purchase  of 
supplies.  Upon  this  understanding  did  Japan 
send  her  troops  into  China  to  drive  Germany 
from  Shantimg. 

On  September  2,  news  reached  Peking  that 
several  Japanese  transports  had  arrived  at 
Lungkow,  a  port  under  Japanese  influence  in 
northern  Shantung,  and  that  troops  were  be- 
ing disembarked.  Just  why  Lungkow,  a  port 
situated  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from 
Tsingtau  and  in  a  mountainous  district,  prac- 
tically devoid  of  roads  suitable  for  military 
purposes,  should  have  been  the  spot  from 
which  Japan  first  started  war  operations 
against  Germany,  remained  a  question  that 
the  Far  East  was  unable  to  answer  at  the 
time,  but  events  that  followed  after  the  dis- 
embarkation brought  out  the  answer  clearly. 

With  the  German  Kiaochow  garrison  miles 
away,  Japan  began  the  long,  tedious  journey 
across  Shantung,  where  heavy  rains  and  floods 
made  difficult  the  advance  of  troops.  Arriving 
at  Tsimo  the  middle  of  September,  the  troops 

8 


JAPAN'S  DREAM  OP  DOMINATION 

advanced  westward,  and  about  September  20, 
Peking  was  suddenly  startled  by  the  report 
that  the  Japanese  troops  had  occupied  Wei- 
shien,  and  were  advancing  still  farther  west- 
ward along  the  Shantung  railroad  and  beyond 
the  defined  war  zone. 

By  this  unnecessary  action  Japan  had  vio- 
lated the  neutrality  of  China.  And,  though 
England  had  joined  in  the  European  war  be- 
cause Germany  had  violated  the  neutrality  of 
Belgium,  the  British  Government,  for  some 
reason  unknown,  did  not  think  it  necessary, 
when  all  the  eyes  of  the  world  were  upon  Eu- 
rope, to  protest  loudly,  to  her  ally  in  China, 
against  the  very  thing  that  had  seemingly  so 
shocked  her  in  Belgium. 

Western  Shantung  was  now  in  disorder  and 
confusion.  With  the  Japanese  troops  quar- 
tered over  this  district  there  were  many  clashes 
between  the  native  soldiery  and  the  Japanese 
troops,  and  it  required  a  steady  hand  in  Peking 
to  check  a  revolution  or  a  war. 

And  by  this  same  action  did  Japan  prove  to 
the  world  that  it  was  not  "the  maintenance  of 
the  peace  of  the  Far  East"  that  had  brought 

9 


THE  FALL  OP  TSINGTAU 

her  into  the  European  struggle,  but  rather  her 
political  ambition. 

So  serious  was  the  situation  in  Shantung,  the 
Council  of  State  at  Peking  was  hurriedly  called 
together  to  discuss  Japan's  breach  of  faith.  A 
resolution  was  unanimously  passed  calling  for 
interpretation  of  the  Government's  policy  con- 
cerning China's  neutrality.  In  moving  the 
interpretation  Liang  Chi  Chao,  a  member  of 
the  Council,  said:  — 

"Since  the  outbreak  of  the  European  war. 
President  Yuan  Shi  Kai  has  represented  the 
nature  of  China's  diplomatic  relations  and  we 
sympathize  with  the  Government's  difficult 
situation,  but  the  events  and  the  rapid  move- 
ments of  the  last  twenty  days  leads  to  the  be- 
lief that  his  reports  are  incomplete.  Since  the 
people  are  most  indignant,  the  duty  has  de- 
volved upon  us  to  ask  the  Government  for  an 
explanation.  When  Japan  declared  war  upon 
Germany,  we  were  forced  to  delineate  a  war 
zone.  However,  Japan  has  violated  our  neu- 
trality by  occupying  Wei-hsien  and  preparing 
to  seize  the  railroad  beyond  the  limits  set 
forth. 

I  10 


JAPAN'S  DREAM  OF  DOMINATION 

"I  ask,  are  there  any  German  soldiers  west 
of  Wei-hsien?  The  westward  movement  of  the 
Japanese  is  nothing  but  a  geographical  move- 
ment? Judging  from  the  actions  of  their  army, 
Tsingtau  is  not  their  objective,  but  they  are 
trying  to  occupy  the  whole  of  Shantung  Prov- 
ince, which  they  will  turn  into  another  Man- 
churia. Britain  cannot  be  excused  for  violating 
our  neutrality,  because  its  action  is  taken  in 
concert  with  Japan.  Britain  has  warred  to  up- 
hold the  neutrality  of  weak  nations,  thus  gain- 
ing our  respect,  but  in  China  it  has  followed  a 
diflFerent  policy,  using  the  Allies'  forces  to  vio- 
late the  neutrality  of  Shantung.  The  Japanese 
outrages  are  facts  and  the  Government  should 
not  look  upon  the  people's  suflFerings  with 
indifference." 

"Japan,  by  attacking  Tsingtau,"  said  Chen 
Kuo  Hsiang,  another  member  of  the  Council, 
"is  following  out  a  continental  policy  cherished 
for  the  last  twenty  years.  Its  purpose  is  to 
seize  Tsinan-fu  and  the  northern  sections  of 
the  Tien-tsin-Pukow  railways.  The  situation 
confronting  us  is  most  grave.  1  fear  that 
Shantung  will  become  a  second  Manchuria.  If 

11 


THE  FALL  OP  TSINGTAU 

Japan  takes  Shantung,  what  will  become  of  the 
nation?" 

The  Council  of  State  even  discussed  war 
against  Japan,  when  General  Choa  Wei  Hsin 
jumped  to  his  feet  and  shouted:  — 

"Should  the  people  of  China  refuse  to  be- 
come slaves?  There  is  hope  that  this  country 
is  becoming  strong  again.  Should  the  people  be 
abused?  Then  it  is  better  for  us  to  die  than  to 
live." 

"Yes,  the  people  must  unite  to  prevent  their 
own  destruction,"  quickly  responded  General 
Wang  Yi  Tang.  "Apparently  Japan  can  seize 
anything  it  wants  as  a  prize  of  war.  This 
must  be  stopped.  We  are  unprepared  to  face 
this  emergency,  but  we  must  make  imme- 
diate preparations  to  cope  with  the  situa- 
tion." 

Looking  with  distrust  upon  Japan's  actions, 
and  regarding  them  as  a  serious  breach  of 
faith,  China  at  once  issued  a  protest  to  Japan. 
There  followed  the  usual  evasion  by  the  Japa- 
nese diplomats.  Japan  intimated  in  her  reply 
to  the  Foreign  OflBce  at  Peking  that  she  in- 
tended to  go  a  step  farther  —  to  occupy  the 

1£ 


JAPAN'S  DREAM  OF  DOMINATION 

Shantung  railroad  from  Kiaochow  to  Tsin- 
an-f  u.  Again  did  China  protest  against  the  vio- 
lation of  her  neutrality,  adducing  legal  argu- 
ments this  time  to  back  up  her  claim.  In  reply 
to  this  a  note  was  handed  the  Chinese  Minis- 
ter at  Tokyo  in  which  the  Japanese  Govern- 
ment "announced  its  intentions  of  occupying 
the  entire  railroad  from  the  coast  to  Tsinan-fu; 
that  it  had  requested  the  withdrawal  from  the 
railroad  area  of  all  Chinese  troops,  and  that  it 
has  declared  that  any  opposition  encountered 
from  the  Chinese  authorities  will  be  regarded 
as  an  act  unfriendly  to  Japan  and  partial  to 
Germany." 

By  this  method  Japan  sought  to  drive  the 
"mailed  fist"  policy  of  Germany  from  China 
in  order  that  she  could  replace  it  with  the 
"mailed  fist"  policy  of  Japan,  which  has  been 
modeled  after  that  of  her  former  Teutonic 
tutor  in  arms. 

In  no  position  to  resist  the  Japanese  de- 
mands, and  with  everything  to  lose  by  defying 
her  powerful  neighbor,  China  was  forced  to  be 
humiliated  and  accede  to  seeing  her  neutrality 
violated.   It  was  but  another  example  of  how 

13 


THE  FALL  OP  TSINGTAU 

Japan  tries  to  promote  cordial  relationship 
between  China  and  herself.  Japan  was  taking 
another  step  toward  realizing  her  desire  to 
dominate  China. 


CHAPTER  II 

PRELIMINARIES   TO   THE   DECLARATION   OF 
WAR 

In  a  war,  such  as  Europe  was  thrown  into, 
there  is  no  neutral  territory  to  feel  so  much  the 
concussion  as  the  Far  East.  With  practically- 
all  the  Powers  holding  concessions  in  some  part 
of  the  Orient,  a  diplomatic  eruption  in  any  other 
section  of  the  world  at  once  throws  the  foreign 
sections  of  the  Far  East  into  excitement. 

The  rising  war  clouds  find  Americans,  Brit- 
ishers, Germans,  French,  gathered  together  in 
the  lobbies  of  hotels  or  at  their  respective 
clubs,  all  prophesying  and  discussing  together 
the  pros  and  cons  of  the  question.  By  the  time 
the  actual  declaration  of  war  is  served,  the  Far 
East  is  already  at  sword  points,  and  the  once 
cosmopolitan  gatherings  have  become  a  clique 
affair  with  the  Britishers  at  their  club,  the  Ger- 
mans at  theirs,  the  French  at  their  quarters, 
and  the  Americans  free  to  go  to  whichever 
their  membership  entitles  them  to, 

15 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

And  then  the  war  starts  —  in  the  actual  field 
of  battle  by  the  deep  imdertoned  voices  of 
siegers  and  the  phut-phut  of  rifles;  in  diplomatic 
centers  by  column  after  column  of  communica- 
tions for  publication  to  the  editors  of  the  vari- 
ous foreign  newspapers.  The  British  Resident 
in  Shanghai  writes  a  communication  denounc- 
ing the  German  and  his  methods,  to  which  the 
Germans  promptly  reply.  Other  foreigners 
take  sides  and  join  in  the  "communication" 
battle,  and  gradually  the  fight  broadens.  Be- 
fore the  battle  is  half  over  the  editor  finds  him- 
self swamped  with  mail  and  a  truce  is  therefore 
declared.  But  by  this  time  the  political,  the 
commercial,  the  religious,  and  in  fact  every 
side  of  life  of  the  "warring  nations"  has  ab- 
sorbed the  discussion  and  there  is  little  left  for 
the  fighters  to  do  but  to  hold  their  chagrin  for 
distribution  among  their  fellow  nationals,  and 
to  watch  and  await  developments  from  the 
actual  field  of  war. 

In  such  a  condition  was  the  Far  East  during 
the  first  week  of  August,  1914.  With  the  Eu- 
ropean Powers  at  war  with  each  other,  there 
was  a  hasty  call  for  reservists  throughout  the 

16 


PRELIMINARIES 

Orient.  Immediately  there  was  a  rush,  busi- 
ness was  dropped,  and  everybody  journeyed  to 
the  railway  stations  or  to  the  piers  to  see  the 
farewell  of  departing  troops.  In  Yokohama 
and  Kobe  were  great  crowds  of  Japanese  at  the 
stations  shouting  "banzai"  and  waving  a  "sa- 
yonnara"  to  their  departing  French,  British, 
Austrian,  and  German  friends,  who  were  all 
going  over  to  Europe  on  the  same  boat  to  fight 
each  other.  And  Shanghai  and  Hongkong  wit- 
nessed like  scenes  with  the  enmity  showing  a 
little  more  bitter  by  the  gathering  in  cliques: 
Germans  on  one  side  of  the  pier  or  on  one  side 
of  the  deck  —  the  British  on  the  other. 

It  was  the  publication  in  the  foreign  press  of 
Japan,  on  August  4,  of  the  reported  seizure  of 
the  Russian  volunteer  fleet  steamer  Riazan,  by 
the  German  cruiser  Emden,  from  Tsingtau, 
which  first  bristled  the  back  of  the  Far  East 
with  talk  of  actual  war  within  its  boundaries. 
The  capture,  so  the  report  stated,  took  place 
near  the  Korean  archipelago,  while  the  steamer 
was  on  its  way  to  Vladivostok,  and  as  such  was 
considered  a  heavy  blow  to  Japanese  sovereign 
rights  and  neutrality. 

17 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Whatever  may  be  the  truth  of  this  reported 
German  interference  with  trade  in  the  Orient, 
the  fact  is  that  the  Foreign  Office  at  Tokyo  had 
already  seen  in  Germany's  war  against  Europe 
a  most  opportune  time  to  pay  back  that 
"grudge"  against  Germany  for  the  part  Berlin 
had  played  at  the  close  of  the  Chino-Japanese 
War,  in  forcing  Japan  later  to  renounce  the 
definite  possession  of  the  Liao-tung  Peninsula, 
her  fruit  of  the  war.  Then,  too,  the  European 
war  gave  Japan  an  exceptionally  favorable 
opportunity  to  realize  her  ambitions  for  the 
last  ten  years  —  the  domination  and  control  of 
China,  and  with  England,  Germany,  Russia, 
and  France  all  busy  at  home,  there  would  be  no 
Power  left  to  check  Japan  but  the  United 
States. 

It  was  not,  therefore,  a  surprise  to  those  for- 
eigners who  resided  in  Tokyo  to  learn  on  Au- 
gust 2  that  the  Foreign  Office  at  Tokyo  had 
sent  a  formal  note  to  the  Foreign  Office  in 
London  in  regard  to  the  Mikado's  willingness 
at  once  to  put  in  force  the  Anglo-Japanese 
Alliance,  which  was  negotiated  in  July,  1911. 
The  note  from  Japan  specifically  referred  to 

18 


PRELIMINARIES 

Article  II  of  the  Alliance,  which  stated:  "If  by 
reason  of  an  unprovoked  attack  or  aggressive 
action,  wherever  arising,  on  the  part  of  any 
other  Power";  or,  if  "either  of  the  High  Con- 
tracting Parties  should  be  involved  in  war  in 
defense  of  its  territorial  rights  or  special  inter- 
ests, the  other  High  Contracting  Party  will  at 
once  come  to  the  assistance  of  its  ally  and  will 
conduct  the  war  in  common  and  make  peace  in 
mutual  agreement  with  it." 

Japan's  olBFer  to  London  to  join  in  the  Euro- 
pean war  by  banishing  the  German  menace 
from  the  Far  East,  signalized  the  approach 
of  exciting  and  busy  days  in  diplomatic  circles 
of  the  Nippon  Empire. 

Scarcely  had  the  note  been  handed  to  Sir 
Conyngham  Greene,  the  British  Ambassador 
to  Tokyo,  than  the  French  Ambassador,  Eu- 
gene L.  G.  Regnault,  and  the  Russian  Ambas- 
sador, Nicolas  Malewsky-Malewitch,  drove  up 
to  the  compound  of  the  English  Embassy  in 
Tokyo  where  an  exciting  discussion  was  held 
with  the  British  Ambassador  as  to  the  prac- 
ticability of  allowing  Japan  to  enter  the  war. 

The  conferences  of  the  three  ambassadors 
19 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

was  continued  for  three  or  four  days,  but  just 
what  stand  was  taken  by  the  representatives 
was  never  known,  except  that  harmony  must 
have  been  reached,  for  on  August  7  the  British 
Ambassador  handed  to  the  Foreign  Office  at 
Tokyo  a  request  that  Japan  join  in  the  Euro- 
pean war. 

The  exact  contents  of  the  note  were  never 
made  pubHc,  but  the  rumor  in  diplomatic 
circles  in  Tokyo  the  following  day  had  it  that 
England  had  asked  that  Japan,  in  case  she 
joined  in  the  war,  should  confine  her  war  oper- 
ations to  the  actions  of  the  German  and  Aus- 
trian warships,  and  to  the  protection  of  British 
merchantmen  in  Far  Eastern  waters,  or  to  the 
negative  help  to  British  warships  in  Oriental 
waters. 

Japan,  it  appears,  was  not  content  with  re- 
stricted action,  since  she  was  to  participate  in 
the  war  under  the  terms  of  the  Anglo-Japanese 
Alliance,  but  desired  rather  to  play  a  more 
important  part  in  the  war  operations  than  were 
proposed  for  the  Far  East. 

On  the  same  evening  that  the  British  Am- 
bassador handed  the  Foreign  Office  in  Tokyo 

20 


PRELIMINARIES 

the  request  from  Sir  Edward  Grey,  Count 
Okuma,  Premier  of  Japan,  called  a  meeting  of 
the  Cabinet  which  did  not  break  up  its  session 
to  well  beyond  2  a.m.  the  following  morning. 
At  that  meeting  it  was  decided  to  go  further 
into  action  in  the  Far  East  than  to  control  the 
Pacific  waters  and  aid  British  merchantmen 
and  British  warships;  instead,  to  drive  Ger- 
many from  Kiaochow  and  Asia. 

With  this  in  mind.  Baron  Kato,  Foreign 
Minister,  proceeded  the  same  morning  to 
Nikko  to  advise  the  Emperor  of  Japan  of  the 
situation.  At  the  same  time  an  important  con- 
ference was  held  at  the  Navy  OflSce  in  Tokyo, 
at  which  Vice-Admiral  Yashiro,  Minister  of 
Marine,  Fleet  Admiral  Togo,  and  other  promi- 
nent officials  of  the  Navy  Department  con- 
ferred upon  the  possible  part  the  Japanese  fleet 
was  to  play  in  Oriental  waters. 

Germany  at  this  time  began  to  scent  danger 
in  the  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance  and  its  possible 
eflFect  upon  Kiaochow  and  her  other  colonial 
possessions  in  the  Pacific,  and  so  on  August  8 
the  German  Embassy  issued  the  following 
communique  stating  the  relative  position  of  the 

21 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

German  Far  Eastern  fleet  with  Japanese  com- 
merce:— 

It  will  be  of  interest  to  learn  that  the  German 
authorities  have  taken  proper  measures  to  avoid 
all  unnecessary  interference  with  neutral  shipping, 
especially  Japanese.  Thus  it  is  known  that  the 
German  cruiser  Emden,  when  meeting  the  Japan- 
ese steamship,  Sakaki  Maru,  in  hazy  weather,  re- 
quested her  to  show  her  flag  in  order  to  ascertain 
her  nationality,  and,  when  this  request  was  com- 
plied with,  immediately  allowed  her  to  proceed,  ob- 
serving all  the  usual  courtesies. 

Great  Britain,  now  being  advised  of  Japan's 
desires  of  pushing  Germany  out  of  Asia,  began 
to  hesitate  in  approving  the  start  of  Japan's 
war  operations,  and  this  led  naturally  to  a 
delay  in  Japan's  declaration  to  the  world  of  her 
actions.  The  question  that  seemed  to  interest 
the  Foreign  OflSce  in  London  was  whether  or 
not,  if  Japan  drove  Germany  from  Asia, 
Kiaochow  should  be  placed  under  the  control 
of  Great  Britain  or  of  Japan. 

Japanese  diplomatists  evidently  decided 
that  they  should  be  supreme,  for  already  their 
Government  had  mobilized  an  army  of  25,000 
men,  transports  had  been  hired,  and  the  ves- 
sels of  the  Japanese  navy,  which  were  later  to 


PRELIMINARIES 

blockade  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow,  were  already 
at  their  yards  at  Sasebo,  Kure,  and  Yokosuka, 
coaHng,  loading  with  ammunition  and  supplies, 
and  preparing  for  the  first  move  —  in  case  war 
should  be  declared  against  Germany. 

Meanwhile  notes  were  being  exchanged  be- 
tween London  and  Tokyo  upon  the  issue  at 
stake  —  whether  Kiaochow  at  the  conclusion 
of  the  European  war  was  to  be  given  to 
Great  Britain  to  do  with  as  she  pleased,  or 
should  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  Japanese 
Empire.  With  Germany  busy  warring  in 
Europe  and  unable,  therefore,  to  offer  her  colo- 
nies in  Asia  and  the  Pacific  any  assistance, 
there  was  no  thought  in  the  minds  of  London 
officials  that  the  little  German  garrison  at 
Kiaochow  could  show  any  substantial  re- 
sistance against  the  overwhelming  odds  that 
Japan  would  put  against  it  —  if  allowed  to 
carry  out  her  desires. 

The  Foreign  Offices  at  London  and  Tokyo, 
evidently  being  deadlocked  upon  the  question, 
matters  took  a  more  favorable  turn  when  Sir 
Edward  Grey  addressed  a  note  to  Japan  in 
which  he  stated  that  Great  Britain  would  grant 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Japan's  wish  —  to  drive  Germany  from  Kiao- 
chow  —  provided  she  "would  confine  her  war 
operation  to  the  China  Sea"  and  "eventually 
turn  over  Kiaochow  to  China." 

In  this  move  of  depriving  Germany  of  her 
Far  Eastern  naval  base,  Great  Britain  saw  an 
opportunity  of  furthering  her  immense  trade  in 
China  at  the  expense  of  Germany,  at  the  same 
time  depriving  German  commerce  of  a  great 
asset  in  Asia.  It  sounded  the  death-knell  of  the 
"mailed  fist"  in  Asia  and,  as  Great  Britain 
thought,  would  eventually  see  the  restoration 
of  Kiaochow  to  China,  its  rightful  owner. 

The  British  note,  under  the  new  terms,  being 
delivered  to  Japan,  the  Nippon  capital  at  once 
took  on  busy  conferences.  First,  the  Elder 
Statesmen  and  the  Cabinet  conferred,  then 
the  War  OflBce  was  consulted,  and  at  length, 
on  August  9,  Sir  Conyngham  Greene,  the  Brit- 
ish Ambassador,  was  notified  that  Japan  was 
ready  to  carry  on  the  war  against  Germany 
according  to  the  last  note. 

In  the  evening  of  the  same  day  Count  von 
Rex,  the  German  Ambassador  in  Tokyo,  was 
notified  informally  that  a  breach  between  the 

24 


PRELIMINARIES 

two  Governments  was  pending.  In  fact,  with 
the  happenings  that  had  occurred  in  Tokyo  for 
the  past  several  days,  the  German  Ambassador 
had  not  been  long  in  scenting  danger,  and  days 
before  had  notified  Berlin,  as  well  as  the  Kiao- 
chow  Government,  of  the  fast  approaching  war 
clouds  in  the  Orient.  His  government  had 
therefore  acted  accordingly. 

On  August  1,  the  day  that  Germany  de- 
clared war  upon  England,  the  Norddeutscher 
Lloyd  liner,  Prinz  Eitel  Friedrich,  which  had 
called  at  Shanghai,  on  its  voyage  to  Bremen, 
was  notified  by  the  Berlin  Government  to  dis- 
embark all  passengers  and  to  proceed  at  once 
to  Tsingtau.  The  following  day  it  arrived  at 
the  Shantung  port,  and  on  August  3,  Tsingtau 
was  declared  under  martial  law. 

The  British  steamer,  Kanchow,  which  was  in 
port,  was  notified  late  that  evening  that  she 
would  have  but  two  hours  to  leave  the  port  or 
she  would  be  seized.  She  moved  out  at  once. 
Early  the  following  morning  Britishers,  Rus- 
sians, and  Americans  summering  at  Tsingtau 
awoke  to  find  the  city  posted  with  proclama- 
tions.    Every   train   running   into   the   city 

25 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

brought  handfuls  of  German  reservists  from 
Tientsin  and  other  cities  in  the  hinterland,  and 
all  business  in  the  city  seemed  to  have  ceased; 
instead  there  were  preparations  for  war.  Vice- 
Admiral  Meyer  Waldeck,  Governor  of  Kiao- 
chow,  issued  shortly  afterward  a  note  inform- 
ing all  non-combatants  that  they  would  be 
given  a  twenty-four-hour  notice  to  leave.  That 
evening,  however,  found  the  train  running  from 
Tsingtau  to  Tsinan-f u  packed  with  foreigners  as 
well  as  Chinese,  all  greatly  excited  and  hoping 
to  get  out  of  Kiaochow  before  the  war  broke. 
During  this  time  quite  another  scene  was 
being  enacted  in  the  harbor  of  Tsingtau.  On 
August  3,  the  Prinz  Eitel  Friedrich,  which  had 
rushed  from  Shanghai  two  days  before  with 
her  full  speed  of  eighteen  knots,  was  in  Tsing- 
tau being  converted  into  a  battle  cruiser. 
Searchlights  were  placed  on  the  vessel  and  the 
gunboats  litis  and  Tiger,  which  stood  along- 
side, were  quickly  stripped  of  their  guns  to  be 
mounted  on  the  faster  boat.  In  the  greater  har- 
bor lay  the  gunboats  Jaguar  and  Lucks,  with 
sailors  busy  about  their  decks  dismantling  the 
vessels  of  guns  and  war  equipment.   With  the 

26 


PEELBIINARIES 

exception  of  these  ships  the  only  other  war- 
vessel  in  port  was  the  Austrian  cruiser,  Kai- 
serin  Elisabeth.  All  Tsingtau  now  seemed  to  be 
preparing  for  war  and  the  busy  and  mysterious 
way  the  German  residents  went  about  the  city 
quickly  threw  into  panic  the  Chinese  coolies  of 
Tapautau,  the  Chinese  section  of  the  city,  and 
many  began  to  leave  the  district.  Prompt  ac- 
tion was  taken  by  the  German  authorities 
however,  who  brought  back  two  hundred 
coolies  under  guard  and  set  them  to  work  help- 
ing to  dismantle  the  gunboats  and  equipping 
the  Prinz  Eitel  Friedrich. 

Likewise  were  other  war  operations  carried 
on  about  Tsingtau.  Along  the  fortifications 
that  skirted  the  woods  on  litis,  Bismarck,  and 
Moltke  hills  in  the  rear  of  the  city,  members  of 
the  German  Landsturm  stationed  in  Tsingtau 
were  busy  mounting  machine  guns  and  artil- 
lery. The  German  freighters  Longmoon,  Gou- 
verneur  Jaeschke,  and  Stattssekretaer  Kraetke 
had  been  requisitioned  as  colliers  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  after  entering  port  and  coaling 
had  gone  out  upon  the  Yellow  Sea  twenty 
miles  to  where  the  Emden,  Scharnhost,  and 

27 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

rN,-    ^  Gneisenau  were  standing  ready  to  fight  or  re- 
tire into  the  harbor,  according  to  the  strength 
(/  >V/v^    of  the  enemy.  At  the  same  time  Chinese  junks 
•'^-O    V  heavily  loaded  with  crates  and  boxes  made 

^  their  way   down   the   Yang-tse   River   from 

Haicheng  and  interned  at  Tsingtau.  Then 
started  the  long  file  of  coolies  from  the  piers  to 
the  military  warehouses  and  fortifications  with 
the  crates  on  their  backs. 

Tsingtau  was  preparing  for  war  —  the  war 
clouds  had  gathered  so  quickly  that  she  found 
herself  unprepared,  with  the  result  that 
powder,  shells,  and  ammunition  were  being 
brought  into  the  port  from  somewhere  in  the 
hinterland  of  northern  China.  British  residents 
in  Tsingtau,  seeing  these  war  preparations 
under  way,  became  uneasy,  and  on  August  7 
more  than  sixty  left  the  city  for  Peking.  On 
the  same  day  the  Governor-General  had  the 
following  notice  posted  throughout  the  city:  — 

All  British  nationals  are  allowed  to  continue  to 
reside  at  the  port  and  engage  in  their  business  as 
hitherto  if  they  will  give  their  word  of  honor 
through  the  British  Consul  not  to  engage  in  any 
acts  which  may  be  regarded  as  inimical  to  the 
German  Empire. 

28 


PBELIMINARIES 

At  Hongkong  quite  the  same  warlike  scene 
was  being  enacted  as  at  Tsingtau.  August  1 
found  the  city  seething  with  excitement  over 
the  secret  preparations  that  were  being  made 
to  guard  the  city  against  attack.  Throughout 
the  previous  night  British-owned  launches  in 
the  harbor  had  been  steaming  to  and  from  the 
naval  jetty,  with  all  lights  out,  and  heavily 
loaded  with  ammunition,  stores,  and  guns.  In 
the  harbor  was  H.M.S.  Triumph  and  the  Cana- 
dian Pacific  liner,  the  Empress  of  Asia,  which 
had  been  requisitioned  by  the  Government  and 
was  mounting  guns  over  her  sides.  All  the 
British  river  gunboats  on  the  Yang-tse  had 
been  recalled  and  the  crews  paid  off  and  com- 
missioned to  the  Triumph.  Large  red  hand- 
bills placarded  the  naval  yards  announcing  to 
service  men  that  divulgence  of  what  was  pro- 
gressing meant  seven  years'  penal  servitude. 
The  British  bluejackets  were  confined  to  the 
dockyard,  the  troops  to  their  barracks,  and 
none  were  allowed  to  leave  the  place.  Sentries 
were  placed  at  every  outpost  boundary  to 
guard  the  four  hundred  square  miles  of  the 
colony,  while  the  Royal  Garrison  Artillery  and 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

the  Hongkong  and  Singapore  battalions  were 
stationed  at  the  posts  on  the  Peak.  Within  the 
city  the  Governor  of  Hongkong  journeyed 
throughout  the  centers  of  employment,  ad- 
dressing the  workers  at  noon-day  meetings  and 
urging  all  able-bodied  men  to  join  the  volun- 
teers or  reserves. 

In  this  way,  with  sentries  at  attention  armed 
with  rifles  and  fixed  bayonets,  did  the  war 
clouds  from  Europe  arise  from  the  Pacific  to 
greet  the  British  settlement  of  Hongkong. 

On  August  10  war  rumors  which  had  been 
circulating  throughout  the  Orient  for  the  past 
two  weeks,  took  decided  form  when  Count 
Okuma  called  all  journalists  in  Tokyo  together 
for  a  conference  at  his  home.  At  the  appointed 
hour  more  than  one  hundred  newspapermen 
were  in  attendance  to  listen  to  the  remarks  of 
Japan's  veteran  statesman.  It  was  the  writer's 
fortune  to  be  one  of  the  listeners  at  the  confer- 
ence, and  to  hear  Count  Okuma  go  over  the 
war  situation  then  existing  in  Europe.  He 
broached  the  situation  as  it  related  to  the 
United  States  and  denounced  as  "false"  the 
report,  printed  throughout  the  vernacular  pa- 

30 


PRELIMINAKIES 

pers  a  few  days  before,  in  which  it  was  stated 
that  the  United  States  had  dispatched  a  note 
to  the  Japanese  Government  in  regard  to  its 
proposition  to  join  in  the  European  war.  The 
report  further  stated  that  the  Atlantic  fleet 
was  being  rushed  through  the  Panama  Canal 
to  Japan  to  back  up  the  note. 

"How  can  the  United  States  make  such  an 
interference,"  said  the  Premier,  "when  Japan 
has  practically  done  nothing  in  reference  to  the 
present  war?  Besides,  judging  from  the  holi- 
day ^  of  the  United  States,  and  the  traits  of  her 
people,  no  one  will  believe  in  such  an  allega- 
tion of  the  American  intervention  with  Japan's 
attitude." 

Count  Okuma  then  laughed  at  the  fear  of 
the  alleged  approach  of  the  American  navy  and 
advised  the  Japanese  journalists  to  read  Con- 
gressman Hobson's  book  on  the  United  States 
before  being  disturbed  by  any  thoughts  of 
America. 

Lieutenant-General  Oshima,  Vice-Minister 
of  War,  Rear-Admiral  Suzuki,  Vice-Minister 

^  Meaning   in   Japanese  interpretation  that    the    United 
States  is  at  peace  with  the  world. 

31 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

of  Marine,  and  Mr.  Matsui,  Vice-Minister  of 
Foreign  Aflfairs,  in  turn  addressed  the  gather- 
ing and  each  hinted  at  the  approaching  war 
with  Germany.  The  pressmen  were  notified 
that  in  the  future  no  news  about  the  move- 
ment of  the  Japanese  fleet  or  its  army  could 
be  printed  without  fear  of  the  suppression  of 
their  papers  by  the  Government.  That  evening 
the  torpedo  boats  Kiji  and  Kamome  were 
guarding  the  harbor  at  Yokohama,  while  a 
Japanese  fleet  under  the  command  of  Admiral 
Kato  had  put  to  sea  and  was  sailing  in  the 
direction  of  Formosa. 

For  the  next  five  days  about  Tokyo  the 
Elder  Statesmen,  the  Cabinet,  the  War  and 
Navy  OflSces  and  the  Foreign  Office  were  busy 
in  completing  the  final  negotiations  for  the  en- 
try of  Japan  into  the  war.  The  Admiralty,  to 
safeguard  the  actions  of  its  fleet  and  army  from 
the  outsider,  had  issued  drastic  censorship  reg- 
ulations for  newspapers.  On  the  first  days  of  its 
issuance  several  newspapers  were  suspended 
for  publishing  the  whereabouts  of  the  fleet  or 
troops.  On  August  15  the  Emperor  of  Japan 
with  the  Empress  repaired  from  his  summer 


P.2 


PRELIMINARIES 

residence  at  Nikko  to  the  Imperial  Palace  at 
Tokyo,  where  late  that  afternoon  the  Elder 
Statesmen,  as  well  as  the  chiefs  of  the  Gen- 
eral Staff  and  Naval  Board,  assembled  before 
the  throne  to  confer  with  His  Majesty  upon 
the  Far  Eastern  situation  and  to  arrange 
for  the  official  rescript  announcing  the  declara- 
tion of  war  upon  Germany.  The  session  before 
the  Imperial  Throne  lasted  until  7  in  the  eve- 
ning, and  but  a  few  minutes  later,  Count  von 
Rex,  the  German  Ambassador,  was  presented 
with  the  following  note:  — 

The  Imperial  Government,  in  view  of  the  present 
situation,  deems  it  important  for  the  permanent 
peace  of  the  Orient  to  see  that  causes  of  disturbance 
of  peace  in  the  Far  East  are  removed  and  to  take 
steps  to  protect  the  general  interests  of  the  Anglo- 
Japanese  alliance.  So,  herewith  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment makes  the  following  demands  on  the  Ger- 
man Government:  — 

1.  The  German  war- vessels  shall  at  once  with- 
draw from  the  waters  of  Japan  and  the  China  Sea. 
Those  vessels  which  cannot  withdraw  shall  be 
disarmed. 

2.  The  German  Government,  with  the  object  of 
its  return  to  China,  shall  hand  over  the  leased  terri- 
tory in  Kiaochow  to  the  Japanese  Government  on 
or  after  September  15  without  condition  and  with- 
out compensation. 

83 


THE  FALL  OP  TSINGTAU 

If  a  reply,  agreeing  unconditionally  to  those  de- 
mands, is  not  received  by  noon  on  August  23, 1914, 
the  Japanese  Government  shall  take  whatever 
steps  it  deems  necessary. 

A  few  days  after  the  deliverance  of  the  ulti- 
matum. Count  Okuma  called  a  conference  at 
his  residence  of  the  business  and  commercial 
heads  of  Japan.  The  writer  attended  the  con- 
ference with  a  Japanese  interpreter  and  the 
following  is  part  of  Count  Okuma's  declaration 
made  that  day.  The  reader  will  note  that  the 
Japanese  Premier  states  that  the  Japanese  par- 
ticipation in  the  war  is  for  no  '*  territorial 
aggrandizement,"  nor  for  any  other  "  selfish 
end,"  and  also  that  the  Government  will  take 
no  action  to  give  other  Powers  "any  cause  of 
anxiety  or  uneasiness  regarding  the  safety  of 
their  territories  and  possessions."  The  Premier 
spoke  as  follows:  — 

Japan's  object  is  to  eliminate  from  the  continent 
of  China  the  root  of  the  German  influence  which 
forms  a  constant  menace  to  the  peace  of  the  Far 
East,  and  thus  to  secure  the  aim  of  the  alliance  with 
Great  Britain.  She  harbors  no  design  for  territorial 
aggrandizement  nor  entertains  any  desire  to  pro- 
mote any  other  selfish  end.  Japan's  warlike  opera- 
tions will  not,  therefore,  extend  beyond  the  limits 


PRELIMINARIES 

necessary  for  the  attainment  of  that  object  and  for 
the  defense  for  her  own  legitimate  interests.  Ac- 
cordingly the  Imperial  Government  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  announcing  to  the  world  that  the  Imperial 
Government  will  take  no  such  action  as  to  give 
third  Powers  any  cause  of  anxiety  or  uneasiness 
regarding  the  safety  of  their  territories  and  pos- 
sessions. 

On  the  same  day  the  Japanese  Government 
sent  the  following  communique  to  the  Foreign 
Office  of  Peking:  — 

Owing  to  the  aggressive  actions  of  Germany, 
unfortunately  a  war  has  been  started  between  Eng- 
land and  Germany  and  the  peace  in  the  Far  East  is 
about  to  be  disturbed.  The  Japanese  Government, 
after  consultation  with  England  and  considering 
the  present  circumstances  and  the  future  of  the  Far 
East,  has  been  obliged  to  take  this  last  course  for 
the  assurance  of  peace  of  the  Far  East  and  the  pres- 
ervation of  China's  territorial  integrity  and  the 
maintenance  of  peace  and  order  in  the  same  coun- 
try. 

Just  what  the  Kaiser  thought  of  the  Japa- 
nese ultimatum  can  be  gathered  from  the  fact 
that  two  days  after  its  deliverance  Count  von 
Rex,  the  German  Ambassador  in  Tokyo,  with 
his  legation  staffs,  started  to  pack  their  belong- 
ings initial  to  final  leave-taking.  War  between 

35 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

the  two  countries,  he  knew,  was  inevitable. 
Only  the  German  Ambassador  at  Peking  held 
out  hopes  that  the  German  ruler  would  not  be 
hiuniliated  by  its  tone,  and  he  started  a  vain 
negotiation  with  the  Berlin  Government  for 
the  transfer  of  Kiaochow  to  China. 

But  this  action  of  Japan's  I  cannot  understand 
[said  Mr.  Buttmann,  of  the  German  Embassy, 
when  I  called  upon  him  a  few  days  later].  Who  is  it 
that  is  hostile  to  the  power  of  Japan  in  the  Far 
East?  It  certainly  is  not  Germany.  It  is  none  other 
than  Russia  who  is  still  looking  for  a  harbor  that  is 
not  ice-bound,  and  where  she  can  carry  on  her 
commerce. 

Of  course  the  whole  war  is  nothing  but  political 
nonsense,  and  the  jealousy  of  Great  Britain  over  the 
fast-growing  German  navy  is  what  has  led  to  this 
conflict  in  which  practically  all  Europe  is  involved. 
It  had  been  the  hope  of  German  government  offi- 
cials to  form  some  sort  of  alliance  with  Great  Brit- 
ain, in  which  one  Power  supreme  on  sea,  and  the 
other  Power  supreme  on  land,  could  thus  combine 
to  maintain  peace  throughout  Europe.  But  the 
English  politicians  in  their  narrowness  would  have 
none  of  it  and  they  were  bound  to  keep  the  English 
navy  supreme  on  sea.  The  German  navy  has  seen  a 
wonderful  growth  in  the  past  few  years,  but  for 
every  ship  they  built  England  built  two. 

Then,  too.  Great  Britain  has  shown  her  narrow- 
ness again  by  combining  with  the  Slav  to  fight  her 
own  race,  the  Teuton.  But  Russia  drew  them  on, 

86 


PRELIMINARIES 

for  Russia  saw  in  supporting  Servia  her  chance  to 
extend  her  power  into  the  Balkan  States  and  pos- 
sibly Austria-Hungary.  And  that  is  why  Germany 
sent  a  note  to  Russia  at  the  beginning  of  the  con- 
flict asking  her  to  stop  mobilization,  for  if  Russia 
extended  her  sway  into  Austria-Hungary  it  would 
be  but  a  step  into  Germany,  and  that  would  be  her 
aim.  But  Russia  refused  to  end  her  mobilization, 
and  so  with  the  mobilization  of  the  German  troops 
France  was  brought  in.  With  revenge  for  Alsace- 
Lorraine  still  in  her  mind,  France  realized  that 
with  her  rise  or  fall  the  question  of  who  should 
dictate  upon  the  Continent  rested. 

As  to  Germany  and  Kiaochow,  that  is  not  the  big 
fundamental  question  that  Germany  has  to  con- 
tend with  to-day.  It  is  a  mere  nothing  to  them  and 
does  not  loom  up  as  anything  vital  at  all.  Kiao- 
chow can  really  only  be  called  a  sentimental  ques- 
tion as  far  as  Germany  is  concerned  at  the  present. 

On  August  19,  Count  von  Rex  received  word 
from  Governor-General  Meyer  Waldeck  of 
Kiaochow  that  the  Berlin  Government  had 
instructed  him  to  defend  Kiaochow  to  the  last 
man.  At  the  same  time  Berlin  cabled  the  fol- 
lowing message  to  America:  — 

Should  Japan  intend  to  take  possession  of  Kiao- 
chow it  would  frighten  us  as  little  as  did  England's 
attack  on  Africa.  This  is  only  a  new  maneuver  on 
the  part  of  England,  and  though  painful  it  will  have 
little  influence  on  the  campaign.  Germany  will  be 

37 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

obliged  to  refuse  Japan's  claim.  If  Germany 
thereby  suffers  any  loss,  she  will  take  her  satisfac- 
tion in  other  ways. 

All  that  Count  von  Rex  had  expected  from 
Berlin  in  reply  to  the  Japanese  ultimatum  was 
vouched  for  four  days  later  —  Sunday,  August 
23  —  when  that  memorable  hour  of  12  o'clock 
noon  was  reached  and  not  a  word  from  his 
Government.  A  few  hours  later  he  was  handed 
his  passports  as  well  as  the  following  Imperial 
decree  announcing  the  declaration  of  war:  — 

We,  by  the  Grace  of  Heaven,  Emperor  of  Japan, 
seated  on  the  Throne  occupied  by  the  same  Dy- 
nasty from  time  immemorial,  do  hereby  make  the 
following  proclamation  to  all  Our  loyal  and  brave 
subjects:  — 

We  hereby  declare  war  against  Germany  and  We 
command  Our  Army  and  Navy  to  carry  on  hostili- 
ties against  that  Empire  with  all  their  strength,  and 
We  also  command  all  Our  competent  Authorities 
to  make  every  effort,  in  pursuance  of  their  respec- 
tive duties,  to  attain  the  national  aim,  by  all  the 
means  within  the  limits  of  the  law  of  nations. 

Since  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war  in  Europe, 
the  calamitous  effects  of  which  We  view  with 
grave  concern.  We,  on  Our  part,  have  entertained 
hopes  of  preserving  the  peace  of  the  Far  East  by 
the  maintenance  of  strict  neutrality.  But  the  ac- 
tion of  Germany  has  at  length  compelled  Great 

38 


PRELIMINARIES 

Britain,  Our  Ally,  to  open  hostilities  against  that 
country,  and  Germany  is,  at  Kiaochow,  its  leased 
territory  in  China,  busy  with  warlike  preparations, 
while  its  armed  vessels  cruising  the  seas  of  Eastern 
Asia  are  threatening  Our  commerce  and  that  of  Our 
Ally.  The  peace  of  the  Far  East  is  thus  in  jeopardy. 
Accordingly,  Our  Government  and  that  of  His 
Britannic  Majesty,  after  a  full  and  frank  communi- 
cation with  each  other,  agreed  to  take  such  meas- 
ures as  may  be  necessary  for  the  protection  of  the 
general  interests  contemplated  in  the  Agreement  of 
Alliance,  and  We,  on  Our  part,  being  desirous  to 
attain  that  object  by  peaceful  means,  commanded 
Our  Government  to  offer,  with  sincerity,  an  advice 
to  the  Imperial  German  Government.  By  the  last 
day  appointed  for  the  purpose,  however.  Our  Gov- 
ernment failed  to  receive  an  answer  accepting  their 
advice. 

It  is  with  profound  regret  that  we,  in  spite  of 
Our  ardent  devotion  to  the  cause  of  peace,  are  thus 
compelled  to  declare  war,  especially  at  this  early 
period  of  Our  reign  and  while  We  are  still  in  mourn- 
ing for  Our  lamented  Mother. 

It  is  Our  earnest  wish  that,  by  the  loyalty  and 
valor  of  Our  faithful  subjects,  peace  may  soon  be 
restored  and  the  glory  of  the  Empire  be  enhanced. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  VIOLATION  OF  NEUTRALITY 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  while  the  German 
ofifensive  movement  in  Belgium  was  develop- 
ing, dm-ing  the  first  month  of  the  war  in  Eu- 
rope, observers  would  center  attention  upon 
the  coimtries  in  Europe,  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
war  events  elsewhere.  This  accounts  probably 
for  the  somewhat  indifferent  attitude  that  was 
taken  toward  the  war  that  Japan  was  waging 
against  the  German  protectorate  at  Kiaochow. 
However,  the  events  in  the  Far  East  had  pri- 
marily a  more  important  meaning  to  America 
than  events  in  Europe,  for  they  brought  to  the 
fore  Japan's  seizure  of  the  German  islands  in 
Pacific  waters.  In  case  Japan  should  ever  war 
against  the  United  States,  these  islands  might 
play  a  very  important  part;  for  the  once  Ger- 
man possessions  in  the  Pacific  can  be  utilized  as 
a  block  in  the  communication  between  the  colo- 
nial possessions  of  the  United  States,  namely, 
Hawaii,  Guam,  and  the  Philippine  Islands. 

40 


THE  VIOLATION  OF  NEUTRALITY 

While  Japan  had  actually  started  her  war 
operations  against  Kiaochow  days  before  her 
declaration  of  war  against  Germany,  the  first 
event  in  the  war  was  the  blockading  of  the 
Bay  of  Kiaochow.  On  August  26,  three  days 
after  the  declaration  of  war,  Vice-Admiral 
S.  Kato,  in  command  of  the  second  Japa- 
nese squadron,  consisting  of  the  Suwo,  Iwami, 
and  Tango,  which  had  been  the  Pobjeda, 
Orel,  and  Poltawa  of  the  Russian  fleet  be- 
fore their  capture  by  the  Japanese  in  1905, 
steamed  from  their  base  on  the  island  of  For- 
mosa and  drew  up  in  a  semi-circle  ten  miles  out 
from  Tsingtau.  Admiral  Kato  sent  a  wireless 
message  to  Governor  Meyer  Waldeck  of  Kiao- 
chow asking  that  he  receive  a  parlementaire 
from  the  Japanese  Government  to  consider  the 
surrender  of  the  protectorate.  The  Governor 
of  Kiaochow  refused  the  request  unless  the 
desires  of  the  Japanese  Government  were 
specifically  expressed,  whereupon  the  Bay  of 
Kiaochow  was  immediately  declared  by  the 
Japanese  to  be  blockaded. 

Days  before  the  German  garrison  at  Tsing- 
tau had  expected  this  development,  and  so  after 

41 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

calling  in  her  Far  Eastern  fleet  consisting  of  the 
flagship  Scharnhorst,  under  command  of  Ad- 
miral von  Spec,  the  Emden  and  the  Gneisenau, 
the  war-vessels  were  reprovisioned  and  dis- 
patched from  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow  on  a  raid- 
ing cruise  which  proved  one  of  the  most  melo- 
dramatic of  the  war.  Germany  had  learned  her 
lesson  from  the  Russians  and  she  decided  that 
she  was  not  going  to  do  what  the  Czar's  com- 
manders had  done  at  Port  Arthur  during  her 
war  with  Japan  —  allow  the  bottling-up  of  her 
fleet. 

With  the  departure  of  Admiral  von  Spec's 
fleet  from  Tsingtau,  the  entrance  to  the  Bay  of 
Kiaochow  was  sown  with  more  than  five  thou- 
sand mines  behind  which  barrier  steamed  the 
disarmed  Austrian  cruiser  Kaiserin  Elisabeth, 
as  well  as  the  German  destroyer,  S-90. 

For  the  next  several  days  the  war  operations 
of  both  Japan  and  Germany  were  seemingly 
veiled.  The  first  fleet  of  the  Japanese  navy, 
under  command  of  Admiral  K.  Kato,  was  still 
steaming  about  Formosa  and  the  China  coast, 
evidently  searching  for  German  prey,  while  the 
British  cruiser  Triumph  and  the  British  gun- 

42 


THE  VIOLATION  OF  NEUTRALITY 

boat  Kennet,  which  were  scheduled  to  join  in 
the  Kiaochow  action,  were  cruising  ofif  Hong- 
kong and  Shanghai  guarding  the  China  coast 
from  the  approach  of  the  German  Far  Eastern 
fleet.  The  latter,  however,  was  cruising  about 
the  South  Pacific  islands,  searching  for  British 
merchantmen  and  otherwise  guarding  the  Ger- 
man possessions. 

To  the  extreme  north  of  the  Yellow  Sea 
were  the  Japanese  transports  steaming  toward 
northern  Shantung  and  bearing  twenty  thou- 
sand fighting  men,  all  eager  to  put  into  effect 
**the  game"  of  the  Mikado's  protectorate  in 
China  and  the  driving  of  Germany  from  Asia. 

Within  Kiaochow  and  Tsingtau  final  prepa- 
rations were  being  made  for  the  Japanese  at- 
tack. With  a  permanent  garrison  of  only  six- 
teen hundred  men,  Berlin  had  issued  a  call 
for  the  reservists  in  the  Far  East  to  report  at 
Tsingtau,  and  into  the  German  protectorate 
they  poured  —  from  Singapore,  Hongkong, 
Shanghai,  Kobe,  and  Tokyo;  every  train  from 
Tsinan-fu  into  Tsingtau  brought  its  quota  of 
Germany's  finest  men.  The  majority  of  the 
reservists  were  traders,  men  who  had  spent 

48 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

years  in  the  Far  East  in  learning  native  lan- 
guages and  fostering  German  trade.  By  the 
first  week  in  September  there  were  about  forty- 
five  hundred  fighting  men  gathered  about  the 
fortifications  of  Tsingtau. 

All  were  busy  along  the  fortification  walls 
that  skirt  the  rear  of  the  city.  Trenches  were 
being  dug,  the  ground  in  front  mined,  redoubts 
with  bomb-proof  shelters  constructed,  barbed- 
wire  entanglements  set  up,  and  guns  mounted. 
The  garrison  was  expecting  the  landing  of  the 
Japanese  land  forces  at  any  minute  and  the 
Tsingtau  fortifications  were  alive  with  moving 
men  both  day  and  night. 

But  the  German  garrison  of  Kiaochow  had 
seemingly  forgotten,  during  their  exciting  prep- 
arations for  war,  that  the  Japanese  diplomats 
are  shrewd,  and  that  even  an  army  bent  on  war 
sometimes  halts  to  gather  fruit  by  the  wayside. 
And  so  the  German  garrison  worked  hard  and 
labored  in  preparation  for  news  of  the  landing 
in  Kiaochow  of  the  Japanese  expeditionary 
force  and  their  advance  upon  Tsingtau,  but  the 
Japanese  did  not  come. 

Expectancy  always  kindles  excitement.  And 


THE  VIOLATION  OF  NEUTRALITY 

so  it  did  in  Tsingtau  during  the  last  week  in 
August.  At  night  the  bright  flares  and  flashes 
from  the  searchlights  on  the  blockading  squad- 
ron could  be  seen  reflected  like  signals  on  the 
clouds  that  hung  over  the  Yellow  Sea,  suggest- 
ing "to-morrow  the  attack"  in  the  minds  of 
the  Tsingtau  garrison.  But  the  days  came  and 
went  without  much  change  in  maneuvers. 

One  day,  however,  the  blockading  squadron 
approached  within  the  nine-mile  zone  to  the 
entrance  to  Kiaochow  Bay,  and  then  it  was 
that  the  residents  in  Tsingtau  heard  the  deep 
undertone  reports  of  their  twenty-four-centi- 
meter guns  on  litis  Fort  and  knew  that  the  war 
in  the  Far  East  had  actually  started. 

And  the  "  to-morrow,"  —  well,  it  came  and 
with  no  signs  of  the  approaching  expeditionary 
forces,  imtil,  on  September  3,  the  German  gar- 
rison at  Tsingtau  received  a  report  that  the 
Japanese  troops  had  landed  at  Lungkow,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  the  north. 

The  news  was  received  with  "surprise  and 
was  instantly  followed  by  the  ordering  of  three 
detachments  of  the  German  troops  into  the 
hinterland   of   Kiaochow.    One   detachment, 

45 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

called  the  eastern  detachment,  proceeded  in 
the  direction  of  Chinchiakow  to  guard  the  road 
to  Chefoo;  another  proceeded  to  Kaomi  to 
check  the  advance  of  the  Japanese  on  the  road 
from  Lungkow;  and  the  third,  or  western,  de- 
tachment stationed  themselves  at  Chucheng 
to  guard  the  southern  seacoast. 

Beyond  Lungkow,  the  Japanese  army  be- 
gan to  violate  China's  neutrality,  which,  at  the 
opening  of  hostilities,  they  had  guaranteed  to 
uphold.  With  the  troops  already  landed  upon 
Chinese  soil,  and  with  the  Peking  Government 
too  weak  to  carry  on  any  aggressive  action 
against  Japan,  no  matter  how  much  her  citi- 
zens desired  it,  there  was  but  one  thing  China 
could  do  —  place  a  limitation  upon  the  actions 
of  the  Japanese  troops  in  northern  Shantung. 
In  this  connection  the  Chinese  Government  on 
September  4  sent  the  following  note  to  the 
foreign  legations  in  Peking:  — 

The  Government  of  China  declared  its  neutrality 
toward  the  present  European  war  and  is  faithfully 
maintaining  it.  According  to  reports  from  the 
Chinese  local  authorities  in  the  province  of  Shan- 
tung, the  Germans  have  commenced  war  opera- 
tions at  Kiaochow  Bay  and  their  sphere  of  influence 

46 


THE  VIOLATION  OF  NEUTRALITY 

there,  and  the  allied  forces  of  Japan  and  Britain 
have  also  started  war  operations  at  Lungkow, 
Kiaochow,  Laichow,  and  in  their  neighboring  dis- 
tricts. Germany,  Japan,  and  England  are  all  in 
friendly  relations  with  China,  and  it  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  unfortunately  these  Powers  have 
taken  such  unexpected  courses  in  China's  territory, 
therefore  the  Chinese  Government  has  decided  to 
propose  special  limitations  as  regards  the  extent  of 
the  present  war  operations  as  China  limited  the 
scope  of  war  operations  at  Liao-tung  Peninsula  at 
the  time  of  the  Ruso- Japanese  War  in  1904.  The 
Chinese  Government  will  not  accept  responsibility 
for  the  passing  of  troops  or  any  war  operations  at 
Lungkow,  Laichow,  Kiaochow,  and  their  adjacent 
districts,  but  in  the  other  districts  in  China  the 
Government  will  strictly  enforce  neutrality  as  de- 
clared. The  territory  and  diplomatic  negotiations 
of  China  are  recognized  by  the  Powers  and  they 
will  likewise  protect  the  property  of  the  inhabitants 
in  the  region  to  be  affected  by  the  war  operations. 

Though  Peking  and  all  China  looked  with 
distrust  upon  Japan's  actions,  the  Government 
issued  a  proclamation  stating  that  "as  Japan 
and  England  are  cooperating  in  the  attack 
upon  Tsingtau  at  this  time,  in  order  to  return 
Kiaochow  to  China,  our  people  should  show 
their  good-wills  toward  them.  If  any  Chinese 
officials  should  meet  Japanese  or  British  sol- 
diers they  should  show  their  good-will  toward 

47 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

them,  should  act  peacefully  and  avoid  all  con- 
flicts. Should  the  Japanese  or  British  soldiers 
come  outside  of  the  war  zone,  our  soldiers  and 
citizens  should  not  act  independently,  but 
should  await  instructions  from  Peking." 

On  September  11,  Japanese  forces  entered 
Tsimo,  ninety  miles  from  Lungkow,  after  bat- 
tling nine  days  with  heavy  rains  which  flooded 
rivers  and  made  the  advancement  of  military 
operations  practically  impossible.  The  roads 
were  mere  quagmires  in  which  the  heavy  mili- 
tary carts  sank  to  their  hubs. 

From  Tsimo  the  troops  pushed  on  to  Wei- 
hsien,  again  going  out  of  the  defined  war  zone 
and  violating  the  neutrality  of  China. 

This  last  action  seems  to  have  been  the  straw 
that  broke  the  camel's  back,  for  all  of  northern 
China  rose  in  revolt  against  the  Japanese  ac- 
tion. The  Japanese  troops  took  command  of 
the  Shantung  railroad,  shooting  down  native 
employees  who  seemingly  rebelled  at  the  inva- 
sion. The  troops  pushed  on  to  Tsinan-f  u,  leaving 
small  garrisons  in  every  Chinese  town  to  keep 
"Japan's  peace,"  and  in  a  few  days  western 
Shantung  was  practically  in  the  control  of  Japan. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  ADVANCE   OF   THE  JAPANESE   ARMY 

On  September  11,  while  officials  in  Peking 
were  still  discussing  Japan's  violation  of  China's 
neutraUty,  the  Imperial  Japanese  army  with 
its  cavalry  arrived  at  Pingtau,  about  forty 
miles  from  Tsingtau.  There  had  been  no  sight 
of  the  enemy,  but  reports  were  current  that 
a  detachment  of  Germans  were  garrisoned  in 
the  little  city  of  Tsimo,  about  twenty  miles 
distant.  The  same  night  the  troops  advanced 
toward  Tsingtau,  and  on  the  following  morning 
the  first  encounter  of  the  war  with  Germany 
took  place  at  Tsimo. 

The  little  German  garrison,  consisting  of  but 
ten  men,  was  driven  off  easily  after  an  ex- 
change of  a  few  shots,  in  which  two  of  the  Ger- 
mans fell  wounded  and  Tsimo,  a  Chinese  city 
of  thirty  thousand  population,  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Japan.  The  Japanese  army  offi- 
cers, to  soften  the  hostile  feeling  of  the  Chinese 
residents  against  them,  at  once  journeyed  to 

49 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

the  shrines  of  Confucius,  devout  Shintoists  and 
Buddhists  as  they  were,  and  knelt  in  prayer 
before  the  great  philosopher  of  the  Celestial 
Kingdom.  In  this  way  did  the  Japanese  army 
oflScers  gain  the  respect  of  the  Chinese  natives 
in  Tsimo. 

While  these  warlike  events  were  taking  place 
about  Tsimo,  Tsingtau  was  suddenly  thrown 
into  great  confusion  by  the  flight  of  a  Japanese 
aeroplane  over  the  city  dropping  bombs.  The 
aeroplane,  which  was  attached  to  the  blockad- 
ing squadron,  had  previously  made  one  or  two 
reconnoitering  flights  over  the  Tsingtau  forti- 
fications, but  had  confined  its  actions  simply 
to  observation.  The  gaping  holes  in  the  roofs 
of  the  Moltke  Barracks  and  Governor  Wal- 
deck's  residence,  which  marked  the  damage 
done  by  Japan's  first  use  of  the  aeroplane  in 
modern  warfare,  put  the  residents  of  Tsingtau 
in  great  excitement.  From  then  until  the  first 
week  of  November  and  the  siege  of  Tsingtau, 
the  little  city  lived  in  an  atmosphere  of  trem- 
bling expectancy. 

With  the  "game"  in  the  landing  of  troops 
at  Lungkow  now  fulfilled,  —  the  occupation  of 

50 


\:..iy  -o^-N 


JAPANESE  AEROPLANE 

Preparing  for  a  flight  over  the  city  of  Tsingtau  from  its  base  along  the  Tschang- 
tsun  River.  The  long  tubular  bomb-carrier  can  be  seen  on  each  side  of  the 
aviator's  wind-shield 


THE   MOLTKE   liARKACKS   AT   TS1N(;TAU 

The  roof  shows  the  work  of  bombs  from  the  Japanese  aeroplanes.    The  con- 
cussion from  the  guns  in  the  near-by  forts  had  shattered  every  window 


I 


ADVANCE  OF  THE  JAPANESE  ARMY 

western  Shantung,  —  Japan  now  set  about  to 
bring  her  war  operations  to  a  close  in  the 
brushing  of  Germany  from  Asia.  The  first  step 
taken  toward  this  end  was  in  the  transferring 
of  her  base  of  supplies  from  Lungkow,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Tsingtau,  to 
Lauschan,  but  fifteen  miles  from  the  German 
city.  The  district  lies  just  without  the  limits  of 
Kiaochow  and,  having  a  large  bay,  well  shel- 
tered by  the  Lauschan  Mountains,  which  rise 
up  in  the  Yellow  Sea  at  its  southern  end,  it 
furnished  an  ideal  location  for  a  base  of 
supplies. 

On  September  14,  Commander  Aoki,  in  com- 
mand of  the  destroyer  flotilla  before  Tsingtau, 
forced  a  reconnoissance  into  Lauschan  Bay  and 
drove  back  the  handful  of  German  sentinels 
that  were  posted  about  the  district.  The  fol- 
lowing day  other  units  of  the  blockading  squad- 
ron were  brought  into  effect  at  Lauschan  and 
within  a  few  days  Japanese  transports  ap- 
peared in  the  bay  bearing  fifteen  thousand  ad- 
ditional troops. 

Siege  guns  were  unloaded,  ammunition  and 
supplies  of  all  kinds,  as  well  as  several  aero- 

51 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

planes  and  portable  wireless  outfits,  and  soon 
Lauschan  was  a  bustling  little  war-city.  Chi- 
nese coolies  of  the  district  were  forced  into  serv- 
ice and  work  was  started  on  the  construction  of 
a  narrow-gauged  railroad  into  the  hinterland 
to  carry  supplies  to  the  attacking  army. 

Tsingtau  by  now  was  practically  cut  ofif 
from  all  communication  with  the  world.  The 
Shantung  railroad  had  been  cut  by  the  Jap- 
anese army  and  troops  had  already  entered 
the  Chinese  city  of  Kiaochow,  outside  the  pro- 
tectorate. The  Tsingtau  cable  line  had  been 
cut,  and  only  the  wireless  in  the  rear  of  Gover- 
nor Waldeck's  residence  remained  as  a  source 
for  news  of  anything  happening  outside  the 
little  protectorate.  Through  messages  trans- 
mitted by  wireless  from  German  vessels  an- 
chored at  Woosung,  near  Shanghai,  Tsingtau 
was  able  to  get  a  few  scattered  messages  of 
events  in  the  European  situation,  but  these 
were  meager  and  only  served  as  an  appetizer 
for  more.  Japanese  aviators  had  on  one  or  two 
occasions  tried  to  destroy  the  Tsingtau  wire- 
less station  by  bombs,  but  only  once  did  the 
eflfort  prove  effective,  and  then  the  damage 

52 


ADVANCE  OF  THE  JAPANESE  ARMY 

done  was  repaired  in  a  few  days  by  the  Ger- 
mans and  communication  was  again  opened. 

On  September  18,  the  Japanese  troops  which 
had  landed  at  Lauschan  advanced  into  the 
hinterland  eight  miles,  where  they  suddenly 
met  with  resistance  from  a  detachment  of 
about  one  hundred  Germans  who  had  strongly 
fortified  themselves  in  one  of  the  mountainous 
passes,  behind  machine  guns.  No  casualties 
were  suflFered  in  the  fighting,  but  the  Germans 
were  forced  to  retreat  toward  Tsingtau. 

On  the  same  day  Captain  Zenji  Sakuma,  of 
the  Japanese  cavalry  corps,  was  killed  in  a 
skirmish  of  his  force  with  an  advanced  guard  of 
Germans  near  Liuting  on  the  river  Paisha,  the 
western  boundary  of  Kiaochow.  It  was  the 
first  Japanese  casualty  of  the  war.  In  the  same 
engagement  Baron  Leadsell,  second  secretary 
of  the  German  Legation  at  Peking,  was  also 
killed. 

For  the  next  two  weeks  there  were  many 
clashes  and  skirmishes  between  small  detach- 
ments of  the  two  opposing  forces,  and  all 
tended  to  the  gradual  retreat  of  the  Germans 
toward  their  fortifications  at  Tsingtau. 

53 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

During  the  next  week  the  Japanese  army 
centered  its  fighting  in  the  mountainous  dis- 
tricts south  of  Lauschan  and  gradually  the 
small  German  detachments  were  driven  back 
toward  Tsingtau.  With  the  occupation  of 
Sanpiaoshan  Peak,  nine  hundred  feet  high,  on 
September  22,  the  Japanese  were  able  to  secure 
a  first-class  observatory  position,  from  which 
to  view  the  movements  of  the  German  front 
line,  four  miles  distant  at  Litsun  and  Shat- 
sekau. 

Two  days  later  the  attacking  force  was  fur- 
ther strengthened  by  the  landing  of  the  British 
expeditionary  force  at  Lauschan,  under  the 
command  of  Major-General  Barnardiston. 
The  British  force  consisted  of  the  Tientsin  gar- 
rison of  South  Wales  Borderers,  comprising 
nine  hundred  and  twenty-five  men  with  three 
iundred  additional  Sikhs. 


CHAPTER  V 

CLOSING   IN   THE   OFFENSIVE 

The  war  operations  of  the  combined  Anglo- 
Japanese  force  in  Kiaochow,  from  the  last  week 
in  September  until  the  siege  of  Tsingtau  late  in 
October,  offered  little  of  interest  to  the  outside 
reader,  such  as  was  furnished  by  the  war  raging 
in  Europe.  With  a  battle  front  of  scarcely  five 
miles,  and  with  the  German  garrison  at  Tsing- 
tau able  to  put  only  two  thousand  trained  sol- 
diers in  the  field,  the  fighting  in  Kiaochow  dur- 
ing the  above-stated  period  took  the  form 
more  or  less  of  mere  skirmishes. 

Governor-General  Meyer- Waldeck  at  Tsing- 
tau had  scattered  his  trained  force  in  small 
detachments  about  the  hinterland,  there  to 
guard  the  roads  and,  if  possible,  hinder  the 
advance  of  the  Japanese  troops,  but  so  over- 
whelmingly were  the  odds  against  him  that  the 
resistance  was  very  little. 

From  a  military  standpoint,  however,  the 
maneuvering  of  the  troops  during  these  four 

55 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

weeks  had  proved  beneficial  to  the  Japanese 
army,  in  that  it  gave  the  aviation  corps  a 
chance  to  show  the  value  of  the  aeroplane  in 
modern  fighting.  It  was  the  first  time  the  Jap- 
anese army  had  ever  utilized  the  air  machine 
in  their  war  operations.  Five  or  six  machines 
were  in  flight  throughout  the  day  marking 
movements  of  the  Tsingtau  garrison.  Through 
this  form  of  communication  the  Japanese  staff 
oflScers  were  constantly  in  touch  with  the 
movement  of  the  German  field  force,  and 
gradually  they  were  able  to  cut  through  the 
German  front  defense  and  force  the  latter  to 
withdraw  toward  the  Tsingtau  fortifications. 

Bringing  the  gunboat  Jaguar  and  the  Aus- 
trian cruiser  Kaiserin  Elisabeth  up  the  Bay  of 
Kiaochow,  the  Germans  opened  fire  upon  the 
advancing  force,  both  from  sea  and  land,  in  an 
effort  to  check  the  advance,  but  the  Japanese 
retaliated  by  sending  a  bomb  attack  from  their 
aeroplanes  against  the  ships  and  gradually 
they  were  forced  out  of  range  of  the  land 
operations. 

At  the  same  time  the  fourth  detachment  of 
the  Japanese  blockading  fleet  before  Tsingtau 

56 


CLOSING  IN  THE  OFFENSIVE 

in  the  Yellow  Sea  advanced  into  the  bay  at  the 
foot  of  the  Lauschan  range,  and,  after  landing 
marines,  forced  back  the  left  wing  of  the  Ger- 
man defense  line  to  within  three  miles  of  Tsing- 
tau.  Four  old  field  guns,  German  trophies  of 
the  Franco-Prussian  War,  were  all  the  spoils 
that  the  Japanese  gained  in  the  attack.  The 
German  outposts  in  the  mountains,  however, 
before  withdrawing,  applied  the  torch  to  Meck- 
lenberg  Inn,  a  mountain  summer  resort  for  the 
Tsingtau  residents,  and  destroyed  all  the 
bridges  in  the  mountain  gorges  that  the  Ger- 
man Government  had  built  in  constructing  the 
macadamized  automobile  road  from  the  capi- 
tal of  the  protectorate  into  the  mountains. 

In  the  same  way  did  the  German  outposts 
along  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow  hinder  the  advance 
of  the  Japanese  army  by  dynamiting  all  rail- 
road bridges  and  the  like  along  the  route  of  the 
Shantung  railroad. 

During  this  time  Japanese  trawlers  were 
busy  at  work  in  the  Yellow  Sea  sweeping  the 
entrance  to  the  bay  of  mines  that  the  Germans 
had  placed  in  the  waters.  The  Tsingtau  prom- 
ontory forts  all  attempted  to  harass  the  work 

^7 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

by  firing  upon  the  trawlers,  but  the  guns  were 
not  equal  to  the  range  and  no  damage  was  re- 
ported. A  German  aeroplane  also  made  con- 
tinuous flights  over  the  vessels  at  sea,  dropping 
bombs,  and  the  Japanese  retaliated  by  dis- 
patching two  hydroplanes  in  pursuit  of  the 
German  air  machine.  In  each  such  case  the 
German  machine  easily  outdistanced  the  Japa- 
nese flying  corps  and  flew  back  in  range  of 
the  Tsingtau  fortifications  before  the  Japanese 
aviators  could  head  it  oflf. 

By  October  12,  the  Japanese  investing  army, 
with  the  British  expeditionary  force  making  up 
the  right  wing,  had  advanced  to  Litsun,  about 
eight  miles  from  Tsingtau.  Here  the  German 
front  line  seemed  to  take  a  stubborn  stand  and 
backed  by  the  Kiaochow  cavalry  and  artillery 
the  fighting  took  on  more  desperate  form. 
During  the  week  the  Germans  were  firing  more 
than  fifteen  hundred  shells  daily  from  their 
field  pieces  and  the  Japanese  casualties  for  the 
total  operations  had  passed  the  two  hundred 
mark. 

So  hot  did  the  operations  before  Litsun 
eventually  become  that  the  Governor-General 

58 


ON  THE  MARCH  THROUGH  A  CHINESE  VILLAGE  IN  KIAOCHOW 


TROPHY  RELICS  FROM  THE  FRANCO-PRUSSIAN  WAR 

Used  by  the  Germans  in  the  defense  of  Tsingtau.    Rather  than  leave  them  as 
useful  prizes  of  war  to  the  enemy,  they  blew  the  breech-block  off  each  gun 


CLOSING  IN  THE  OFFENSIVE 

of  Kiaochow  forwarded  a  dispatch  to  General 
Kamio,  commander  of  the  investing  force,  ask- 
ing for  a  suspension  of  hostilities  in  order  that 
time  could  be  taken  to  bury  the  dead.  Just 
what  were  the  German  losses  in  the  engage- 
ment is  not  known,  but  a  few  hours  later,  when 
the  bombardment  was  resumed,  the  Japanese 
force  in  advancing  came  upon  a  trench  with 
twenty-eight  dead  Germans,  evidently  over- 
looked by  the  Tsingtau  garrison  during  the 
truce,  and  it  is  thought  the  German  casualties 
for  the  day  amounted  to  more  than  two 
hundred. 

In  preparation  for  the  final  investment  of 
Tsingtau,  however,  the  Japanese  staff  officers 
decided  to  notify  all  non-combatants  in  the 
city  of  the  situation  and,  if  possible,  give  them 
an  opportunity  to  leave  the  war  zone  before  the 
operations  became  more  serious.  In  this  con- 
nection the  following  communication  was  sent 
by  wireless  to  Governor-General  Waldeck  at 
Tsingtau  on  October  10:  — 

The  undersigned  have  the  honor  to  convey  to 
Your  Excellency  the  most  gracious  wishes  of  the 
Emperor  of  Japan,  who  desires  to  save  non-com- 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

batants  of  the  belligerent  country  as  well  as  the 
subjects  of  neutral  countries  at  Tsingtau  who  de- 
sire to  escape  from  the  loss  that  may  arise  from  the 
attack  on  the  fortified  port.  If  Your  Excellency 
desires  to  accept  the  proposal  of  the  Emperor  of 
Japan,  you  are  requested  to  furnish  us  with  a 
detailed  communique  about  it. 

[Signed]  Lieutenant-Geneeal  Kamio. 

Vice- Admiral  Kato. 

A  few  days  later  the  Kiaochow  Governor 
notified  his  approval  of  the  Japanese  note  and 
Captain  Yamada,  with  ten  Japanese  soldiers, 
was  sent  to  the  gates  of  Tsingtau  to  escort  the 
non-combatants  who  desired  to  leave  the  ill- 
fated  city  and  the  war  zone.  Only  about  a 
dozen  persons  desired  to  take  advantage  of  the 
Japanese  humanitarian  note,  one  being  Mr. 
Peck,  the  American  Consul  at  Tsingtau,  who 
had  remained  in  the  city  to  protect  American 
interests,  until  notified  from  Washington  to 
proceed  to  Peking. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   GERMANS   WITHDRAW   TO   TSINGTAU 

With  the  field  guns  of  the  attacking  force 
now  thundering  at  the  very  door  of  Tsingtau, 
and  with  the  final  leave-taking  of  non-combat- 
ants, the  little  German  city  commenced  to  stir 
with  excitement.  Up  to  this  time  the  city  had 
not  been  cheered  by  any  optimistic  reports 
from  the  field  of  battle,  but  events  shortly  took 
on  a  different  aspect  when  on  the  midnight  of 
October  17  a  report  went  circulating  through 
the  city  that  a  Japanese  battleship  had  been 
sunk  outside  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow  by  the  Ger- 
man destroyer  S-90. 

The  report  was  true,  but  not  until  days  later 
did  the  little  German  city  learn  the  extent  of 
the  damage.  It  seems  that  the  German  de- 
stroyer, which  was  supposedly  interned  in  the 
harbor  of  Tsingtau,  had  made  its  way  out 
through  the  mined  entrance  to  the  harbor  un- 
der cover  of  darkness  and  had  attacked  the 
Takachiho,  a  second-class  defense  boat  of  the 

61 


THE  FALL  OP  TSINGTAU 

Japanese  blockading  fleet,  which  was  doing 
outpost  duty  near  Lauschan  Bay.  Suddenly 
the  other  units  of  the  Japanese  fleet,  which 
were  standing  out  at  sea  about  nine  miles,  saw 
a  flash,  and  a  few  minutes  later  the  report  of  an 
explosion  was  heard.  Putting  on  full  speed,  the 
vessels  rushed  to  the  aid  of  the  Takachiho,  but 
when  they  arrived  in  the  waters  they  found  the 
vessel  already  sunk  and  a  few  of  its  crew  scat- 
tered about  in  the  sea.  As  the  relief  ships  ap- 
proached they  caught  the  sound  of  the  Japa- 
nese national  anthem,  ''Kimigayo,"  which 
the  survivors  were  singing.  Only  one  oflficer 
and  twelve  of  the  crew  were  picked  up  as  sur- 
vivors of  the  incident.  Twenty-eight  officers 
and  two  hundred  and  forty-four  of  the. crew 
had  gone  down  with  the  vessel. 

It  was  a  sorry  day  for  the  Japanese  navy,  not 
only  from  the  standpoint  of  the  loss  of  its  many 
officers,  but  because  of  the  sinking  of  the  vessel 
around  which  was  wrapped  so  much  historical 
sentiment.  The  Takachiho  had  been  the  flag- 
ship of  the  Japanese  navy  during  the  Chinese- 
Japanese  War,  and  as  such  had  played  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  naval  battles  of  that  war  which 


GERMANS  WITHDRAW  TO  TSINGTAU 

had  left  Japan  supreme  among  Asiatic  nations. 
It  had  also  seen  service  at  Port  Arthur  in  the 
Russian  war,  and  had  come  to  be  looked  upon 
by  the  Japanese  as  the  foundation  of  their 
present  first-class  navy,  much  as  the  American 
people  regard  the  Constitution. 

Following  its  successful  attack  upon  the  Ta- 
kachiho,  the  German  destroyer  broke  through 
the  Japanese  blockading  squadron  and,  its 
movements  unnoticed,  cruised  along  the  China 
coast  to  Shihsuehso,  a  Chinese  port  sixty  miles 
south  of  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow  where  the  vessel 
was  beached  and  disarmed  by  its  crew.  The 
crew  was  then  placed  under  guard  by  Chinese 
soldiers,  by  orders  from  Peking,  and  was  held 
at  Nanking. 

With  the  report  of  the  escape  of  the  S-90  in 
Japanese  hands,  the  blockading  fleet  at  once 
closed  up  on  Tsingtau  and  started  a  bombard- 
ment upon  the  forts,  from  a  point  nine  miles  at 
sea.  The  British  cruiser  Triumph  also  joined 
in  the  action,  but  upon  approaching  within  gun 
range  of  the  Tsingtau  promontory  forts  she 
received  damage  on  her  port  side.  One  sailor 
was  killed  and  several  wounded  in  the  attack. 

63 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

In  cooperation  with  the  sea  attack  upon 
Tsingtau  the  investing  land  forces  started  their 
operations  for  the  final  investment  of  the  city 
from  land.  One  regiment  started  an  assault 
upon  Prince  Heinrich  Berg,  a  mountain  rising 
one  thousand  feet,  and  but  three  miles  from 
Tsingtau,  on  which  a  detachment  of  thirty 
Germans  had  been  stationed.  Barbed-wire 
entanglements  had  been  placed  on  the  moun- 
tain-side, already  strongly  fortified  behind  the 
rocky  crags  that  characterized  the  cliflf.  The 
little  German  detachment  was  able  success- 
fully to  hold  its  own  for  more  than  four  hours. 
One  Japanese  major  and  more  than  fifty  men 
were  killed  in  the  storming  of  Prince  Heinrich, 
but  by  a  coup  a  few  of  the  regiment  were  able 
to  gain  the  summit  of  the  mountain  from  the 
rear,  without  their  approach  being  noticed  by 
the  Germans,  who,  surrounded  on  all  sides,  laid 
down  their  arms  and  surrendered. 

Following  this  incident  the  Japanese  and 
British  forces  were  suddenly  thrown  into  bewil- 
derment by  the  disappearance  across  the  Yel- 
low Sea  of  one  of  the  German  observatory 
balloons  from  Tsingtau.   The  balloon,  which 

64 


GERMANS  WITHDRAW  TO  TSINGTAU 

corresponded  to  the  type  being  used  by  the 
Japanese  army  from  their  rear  line,  was  seen 
to  contain  the  figure  of  a  man  using  field- 
glasses,  and  during  the  middle  of  October  it 
was  every  morning  above  the  Tsingtau  fortifi- 
cations. The  attacking  army  had  tried  to  reach 
the  balloon  with  shrapnel,  but  the  attempt 
had  proved  unsuccessful.  Suddenly  one  day  in 
a  heavy  wind  the  balloon,  with  its  observer,  — 
afterwards  learned  to  be  a  stuffed  dummy,  — 
took  to  the  air  and  went  whirling  across  the 
sea.  Japanese  and  British  oflicers  followed  it 
with  their  glasses,  wondering  what  the  move- 
ment could  mean,  and  it  was  several  days 
before  it  was  known  to  have  been  a  hoax. 

With  the  disappearance  of  their  war  balloon 
from  Tsingtau,  the  German  garrison  was 
forced  to  rely  upon  its  one  Taube  for  informa- 
tion of  the  Japanese  army  movements.  In  all 
the  heroic  work  of  the  German  defenders  in 
Kiaochow,  probably  no  incident  stands  out 
more  than  the  work  of  Lieutenant  Pluschow, 
who,  days  before  the  Japanese  army  had  ap- 
proached to  gunshot  distance  of  the  Tsingtau 
forts,  was  flying  about  the  hinterland  of  Kiao- 

^5 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

chow  spotting  the  movements  of  the  opposing 
force.  With  only  three  months'  training,  he 
had  taken  charge  of  the  German  aircraft,  and 
high  in  the  air  above  the  entrenched  British 
and  Japanese  forces,  he  had  braved  shrapnel 
fire  and  shells  from  field  guns  in  order  to  keep 
the  German  staflf  at  Tsingtau  acquainted  with 
any  changes  on  the  battle  line. 

Back  in  Tschang-tsun,  where  was  stationed, 
two  weeks  before  the  siege  of  Tsingtau,  the 
headquarters  of  the  Japanese  staff  oflBcers,  no 
alarm  clock  was  needed  to  tell  when  daylight 
was  rising  from  the  Yellow  Sea.  Simultane- 
ously with  the  first  streaks  of  dawn  in  the  east 
could  be  heard  the  whirr  and  hum  of  Lieuten- 
ant Pluschow's  Taube  as  he  set  out  from  Tsing- 
tau, and  over  the  hills  in  the  hinterland,  to  see 
what  was  stirring  in  the  enemy's  camp.  Swoop- 
ing low  over  the  village  of  the  Japanese  staff 
officers,  he  dropped  many  a  bomb  upon  the 
Chinese  thatched  roofs.  The  hmn  of  the  Ger- 
man aeroplane  was  the  signal  that  a  new  day 
had  arrived,  and  promptly  the  little  village  was 
astir,  each  of  its  residents  hurriedly  dressing 
and  scanning  the  sky  for  the  fast-disappearing 

66 


GERMANS  WITHDRAW  TO  TSINGTAU 

Taube.  Each  day  he  visited  the  Japanese 
headquarters,  and  though,  on  occasions,  a 
Japanese  field  piece,  hidden  behind  some  em- 
bankment, would  try  to  cut  short  these  flying 
expeditions,  Lieutenant  Pluschow  was  un- 
daunted, and  a  few  hours  later  would  be  back 
again  flying  over  the  village. 

But  the  investing  forces  slowly  pushed  on 
their  operations.  There  was  not  much  hurry, 
not  much  excitement  in  their  movements,  for 
the  Japanese  staflf  officers,  as  well  as  the  Tsing- 
tau  garrison,  knew  that  it  was  only  a  question 
of  time  before  Kiaochow  would  have  to  bow  to 
the  inevitable  and  be  handed  over  to  Japan. 
General  Kamio,  commander  of  the  Japanese 
forces,  knew  that  he  was  master  of  the  situa- 
tion, that  Tsingtau  was  practically  isolated 
from  the  world,  and  especially  Germany,  and 
that  no  aid  could  possibly  reach  the  little 
protectorate. 

And  so  the  Japanese  staff  officers  allowed 
events  to  progress  slowly,  not  especially  be- 
cause it  would  lessen  loss  of  life,  but  because 
the  political  situation,  then  developing  in 
Japan,  was  very  critical  for  the  Tokyo  Govern- 

67 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

ment.  The  Cabinet,  which  in  conjunction  with 
the  Elder  Statesmen  had  shaped  the  pohcy 
that  the  nation  was  following  in  the  war,  stood 
in  danger  of  falling,  and  with  the  Diet  meeting 
in  December  to  shape  the  Government's  budget 
and  to  decide  on  other  bills  and  measures,  it 
was  deemed  necessary  that  the  war  operations 
should  progress  slowly  until  the  right  moment 
should  present  itself  for  bringing  the  Kiaochow 
issue  to  a  close. 

Under  such  a  scheme  the  Government 
thought  the  successful  culmination  of  its  war 
operations  would  sweep  the  island  nation  with 
patriotism  and  the  opposition  to  the  Govern- 
ment at  home  would  at  once  have  to  accede  to 
public  demand.  In  this  way  the  Okuma  Cabi- 
net would  remain  in  power  after  the  Diet  ses- 
sion, and  would  be  able  to  further  the  policy 
that  it  had  under  construction  when  it  first 
suggested  to  England  that  it  be  allowed  to  wipe 
out  the  German  naval  base  at  Kiaochow  under 
the  terms  of  the  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance. 

A  later  chapter  describes  how  the  culmina- 
tion of  hostilities  at  Kiaochow  brought  on  a 
serious  political  situation  in  Tokyo  in  which 

68 


GERMANS  WITHDRAW  TO  TSINGTAU 

Japanese  statesmen  were  forced  to  bow  to  pub- 
lic clamor  and  reveal  their  diplomatic  insin- 
cerity, in  order  to  remain  in  power  and  hold  the 
Government's  policy  intact. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  BEGINNING   OF   THE   SIEGE 

War  from  a  grandstand  seat!  I  had  never 
before  heard  of  the  possibility  of  witnessing 
modern  warfare  —  the  attack  of  warships,  the 
fire  of  infantry  and  battery,  the  reconnoitering 
of  airships  over  the  enemy's  Hnes,  the  rolling 
up  from  the  rear  of  reinforcements  and  sup- 
plies —  all  at  one  sweep  of  the  eye,  yet  after 
watching  for  three  days  the  siege  of  Tsingtau, 
from  a  position  on  Prince  Heinrich  Berg,  one 
thousand  feet  above  sea  level  and  but  three 
miles  from  the  besieged  city,  I  am  sure  there  is 
actually  such  a  thing  as  a  theater  of  war. 

On  October  31,  the  anniversary  of  Mutsu- 
hito's  accession  to  the  throne  of  Japan,  the 
actual  bombardment  of  Tsingtau  began.  All 
the  residents  in  the  little  Chinese  village  of 
Tschang-tsun  had  been  awakened  early  in  the 
morning  by  the  whirr  of  the  German  Taube  as 
it  made  its  usual  inspection  of  the  headquar- 
ters of  the  Japanese  staflP  officers.    Every  one 

70 


n 

HEADQUARTERS  OF  THE  GENERAL  STAFF  OF   THE 
JAPANESE  FORCES  AT  TSCHANG-TSUN 


TSINGTAU   ON  THE   MORNING   OF   OCTOBER  31 

As  it  appeared  from  the  Japanese  Staff  Office  at  Tschang-tsun,  when  the  bom- 
bardment began.  Japanese  shells  had  fired  the  oil-tanks,  and  the  smoke  hung 
like  a  pall  over  the  city  throughout  the  day 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  SIEGE 

quickly  dressed  and  after  a  hasty  breakfast 
was  out  at  the  southern  edge  of  the  village 
gazing  toward  Tsingtau. 

A  great  black  column  of  smoke  was  arising 
from  the  city  and  hung  like  a  pall  over  the  be- 
sieged. At  first  glance  it  seemed  that  one  of  the 
neighboring  hills  had  turned  into  an  active 
volcano  and  was  emitting  this  column  of 
smoke,  but  oflScers  who  stood  about  enlight- 
ened onlookers  by  explaining  that  the  oil  tanks 
in  Tsingtau  were  on  fire. 

As  the  bombardment  of  Tsingtau  was  sched- 
uled to  start  early  in  the  morning,  we  were 
invited  to  accompany  members  of  the  staffs  of 
the  Japanese  and  British  expeditionary  forces 
on  a  trip  to  Prince  Heinrich  Berg,  there  to 
watch  the  investment  of  the  city. 

When  we  arrived  at  the  summit  there  was 
the  theater  of  war  laid  out  before  us  like  a  map. 
To  the  left  were  the  Japanese  and  British  cruis- 
ers in  the  Yellow  Sea,  preparing  for  the  bom- 
bardment of  Tsingtau.  Below  was  a  Japanese 
battery,  stationed  near  the  Meeker  house, 
which  the  Germans  had  burned  in  their  retreat 
from  the  mountains.   Directly  ahead  was  the 

71 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

city  of  Tsingtau  with  the  Austrian  cruiser 
Kaiserin  Elisabeth  steaming  about  in  the  har- 
bor, while  to  the  right  one  could  see  the  Ger- 
man coast  and  central  forts  and  redoubts  and 
the  entrenched  Japanese  and  British  camps. 

We  had  just  couched  ourselves  comfortably 
between  some  large  jagged  rocks,  where  we  felt 
sure  we  were  not  on  a  direct  line  with  the  ene- 
my's guns,  when  suddenly  there  was  a  flash  as 
if  some  one  had  turned  a  large  golden  mirror  in 
the  field  down  beyond  to  the  right.  A  little 
column  of  black  smoke  drifted  away  from  one 
of  the  Japanese  "saps,"  or  trenches,  and  in  a 
minute  later  those  of  us  on  the  peak  of  Prince 
Heinrich  heard  the  sharp  report  of  a  field  gun. 

"Gentlemen,  the  show  has  started,"  said  the 
British  captain,  as  he  removed  his  cap  and 
started  adjusting  his  "opera"  glasses.  No 
sooner  had  he  said  this  than  the  report  of  guns 
came  from  all  directions,  with  a  continuous 
rumble,  as  if  a  giant  bowling-alley  were  in  use. 

Everywhere  the  valley  at  the  rear  of  Tsing- 
tau was  alive  with  golden  flashes  or  the  flashing 
from  discharging  guns,  and  at  the  same  time 
great  clouds  of  bluish-white  smoke  would  sud- 

72 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  SIEGE 

denly  spring  up  around  the  German  batteries, 
where  some  Japanese  shell  had  burst. 

Over  near  the  greater  harbor  of  Tsingtau 
could  be  seen  flames  licking  up  the  Standard 
Oil  and  Asiatic  Petroleum  Companies'  large 
tanks.  We  afterwards  learned  that  they  had 
been  ignited  from  the  huge  shells  that  had  been 
turned  upon  the  tanks  from  the  Japanese  gims, 
and  the  bursting  tanks  had  thrown  burning 
oil  on  to  the  naval  buildings  and  wharves  ad- 
joining. 

The  warships  in  the  Yellow  Sea  opened  fire 
on  litis  Fort,  and  for  three  hours  we  continually 
played  our  glasses  on  the  field,  on  Tsingtau,  and 
on  the  warships.  With  glasses  on  the  central 
redoubt  of  the  Germans,  we  watched  the  ef- 
fects of  the  Japanese  fire  until  the  boom  of 
guns  from  the  German  Fort  A,  on  a  little  pen- 
insula jutting  out  from  Kiaochow  Bay,  toward 
the  east,  attracted  our  attention  there.  We 
could  see  the  big  siege  gun  on  this  fort  rise  up 
over  the  bunker,  aim  at  a  warship  in  the  sea, 
fire,  and  then  quickly  go  down  again.  And 
then  we  would  turn  our  eyes  toward  the  war- 
ships in  time  to  see  a  fountain  of  water,  two 

78 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

hundred  yards  from  the  vessel,  where  the  shell 
had  struck.  We  scanned  the  city  of  Tsingtau. 
The  one  hundred  and  fifty-ton  crane  on  the 
greater  harbor,  which  we  had  seen  earlier  in 
the  day,  and  which  was  said  to  be^  the  largest 
crane  in  the  world,  had  disappeared  and  only 
its  base  remained  standing.  A  Japanese  shell 
had  carried  away  the  crane. 

As  the  sun  started  to  drop  behind  the  Pearl 
Mountains  in  the  west,  our  eyes  were  suddenly 
attracted  by  wavering  flashes  from  fire  close  to 
Moltke  Fort.  Turning  our  glasses  on  the  spot, 
we  saw  an  armored  car  pushed  by  a  locomotive 
suddenly  dart  out  from  the  shadows  of  the  for- 
tress, run  a  short  distance  along  the  tracks  of 
the  Shantung  railroad  that  skirt  the  Bay  of 
Kiaochow,  come  to  a  stop,  and  then  open  fire 
upon  the  entrenched  British  force  on  its  right. 
There  were  quick  flashes  of  flames  from  its  side 
as  its  guns  poured  round  after  round  into  the 
trenches,  and  then  the  engine  would  quickly 
pull  the  armored  battery  back  behind  the  hill 
and  from  view. 

But  this  first  day's  firing  of  the  Japanese  in- 
vesting troops  was  mainly  to  test  the  range  of 

74 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  SIEGE 

the  different  batteries.  The  attempt  also  was 
made  to  silence  the  line  of  forts  extending  in 
the  east  from  litis  Hill,  near  the  wireless  and 
signal  stations  at  the  rear  of  Tsingtau,  to  the 
coast  fort  near  the  burning  oil  tank  on  the  west. 
In  this  they  were  partly  successful,  two  guns  at 
litis  Fort  being  silenced  by  the  guns  at  sea. 

On  November  1,  the  second  day  of  the  bom- 
bardment, we  again  stationed  ourselves  on  the 
peak  of  Prince  Heinrich  Berg.  From  the  earli- 
est hours  of  morning  the  Japanese  and  British 
forces  had  kept  up  a  continuous  fire  on  the 
German  redoubts,  in  front  of  the  litis,  Moltke, 
and  Bismarck  forts,  and  when  we  arrived  at 
our  seat  for  the  theater  of  war,  it  seemed  as 
though  the  shells  were  dropping  around  the 
German  trenches  every  minute.  Particularly 
on  the  redoubt  of  Tai-tung-chen  was  the  Japa- 
nese fire  heavy,  and  by  early  afternoon,  viewed 
through  field-glasses,  this  German  redoubt  ap- 
peared to  have  an  attack  of  smallpox,  so 
pitted  was  it  from  the  holes  made  by  bursting 
Japanese  shells.  By  nightfall  many  parts  of 
the  German  redoubts  had  been  destroyed,  to- 
gether with  some  machine  guns.    The  result 

75 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

was  the  advancement  of  the  Japanese  front  line 
several  hundred  yards  forward  from  the  bot- 
tom of  hills  where  they  had  rested  earlier  in  the 
day. 

It  was  not  until  the  third  day  of  the  bom- 
bardment that  those  of  us  stationed  on  Prince 
Heinrich  observed  that  our  theater  of  war  had 
a  curtain,  a  real  asbestos  one  that  screened  the 
fire  in  the  drops  directly  ahead  of  us  from  our 
eyes.  We  had  learned  that  the  theater  was 
equipped  with  pits,  drops,  a  gallery  for  on- 
lookers, exits,  and  an  orchestra  of  booming 
cannon  and  rippling,  roaring  pom-poms,  but 
that  nature  had  provided  it  with  a  curtain  -^ 
that  was  something  new  to  us. 

We  had  reached  the  summit  of  the  mountain 
about  11  A.M.,  just  as  some  heavy  clouds,  evi- 
dently disturbed  by  the  heavy  bombardment 
during  the  previous  night,  were  dropping  down 
into  Litsun  valley  and  in  front  of  Tsingtau. 
For  three  hours  we  sat  on  the  peak  shivering  in 
a  blast  from  the  sea  and  all  the  while  wonder- 
ing just  what  was  being  enacted  beyond  the 
curtain.  The  firing  had  suddenly  ceased,  and 
with  the  filmy  haze  before  our  eyes  we  con- 

7« 


I 


JAPANESE  SUPPLY   COLUMN  ON  THE  WAY  TO 
THE  REAR  LINE 

On  the  day  of  the  opening  of  the  siege,  October  31.    Two  smoke-cohxmns  from 
the  burning  oil-tanks  in  Tsingtau  can  be  seen  in  the  distance 


" 

WKMM 

'  '^'Cvl^r 

^rl^^^HIn  '|it^9ft.  ';>  rinhM  ^ 

. --^'  '.J^  v^'VJ^B^ 

l|^|i 

^.jiS^M 

^H^wSi^b'^^^^f^B^^^Bi^^S 

^»^^I^B^^mdbh^Ih 

-,r€    '   ^ 

JAPANESE  STAFF   OFFICERS  VIEWING  THE 

OPERATIONS  OF  THE   SIEGE 

On  the  top  of  Prince  Heinrich  Berg,  a  mountain  1000  feet  high 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  SIEGE 

jectured  pictures  of  the  Japanese  troops  mak- 
ing the  general  attack  upon  litis  Fort,  evi- 
dently the  key  to  Tsingtau,  while  the  curtain 
of  the  theater  of  war  was  down. 

By  early  afternoon  the  clouds  lifted,  how- 
ever, and  with  glasses  we  were  able  to  distin- 
guish fresh  sappings  of  the  Japanese  infantry 
nearer  to  the  German  redoubts.  The  Japanese 
battery,  which  the  day  before  was  stationed 
below  us  to  the  left,  near  the  Meeker  house, 
had  advanced  half  a  mile  and  was  quartered 
just  outside  the  village  of  Ta-Pau.  Turning  our 
glasses  on  Kiaochow  Bay  we  discovered  the 
Austrian  cruiser  Kaiserin  Elisabeth  missing, 
nor  could  a  search  of  the  shore  line  reveal  it. 
We  afterwards  learned  that  the  Germans  had 
sunk  the  vessel  in  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow  early 
in  the  morning,  after  stripping  it  of  all  its  use- 
ful war  equipment. 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  SIEGE 

jectured  pictures  of  the  Japanese  troops  mak- 
ing the  general  attack  upon  litis  Fort,  evi- 
dently the  key  to  Tsingtau,  while  the  curtain 
of  the  theater  of  war  was  down. 

By  early  afternoon  the  clouds  lifted,  how- 
ever, and  with  glasses  we  were  able  to  distin- 
guish fresh  sappings  of  the  Japanese  infantry 
nearer  to  the  German  redoubts.  The  Japanese 
battery,  which  the  day  before  was  stationed 
below  us  to  the  left,  near  the  Meeker  house, 
had  advanced  half  a  mile  and  was  quartered 
just  outside  the  village  of  Ta-Pau.  Turning  our 
glasses  on  Kiaochow  Bay  we  discovered  the 
Austrian  cruiser  Kaiserin  Elisabeth  missing, 
nor  could  a  search  of  the  shore  line  reveal  it. 
We  afterwards  learned  that  the  Germans  had 
sunk  the  vessel  in  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow  early 
in  the  morning,  after  stripping  it  of  all  its  use- 
ful war  equipment. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   FLEET   BOMBARDS   THE   CITY 

The  fourth  day  of  fighting  at  Tsingtau 
was  undoubtedly  the  most  severe  of^he  siege. 
With  two  guns  on  litis  Fort  already  silenced, 
and  with  the  Japanese  force  pressing  the  Ger- 
mans hard  in  front  of  their  redoubt  walls,  the 
Tsingtau  garrison  practically  gave  up  the  de- 
fense of  their  seacoast  forts,  and,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  an  occasional  shot  from  litis,  the 
battleships  in  the  Yellow  Sea  were  free  to 
bombard  Tsingtau  at  will. 

Then  it  was  that  the  Japanese,  already  fa- 
mous for  their  military  science,  put  into  use, 
probably  for  the  first  time  since  naval  warfare 
began,  the  wireless,  as  a  means  of  marking  the 
shots  from  the  gims  at  sea.  At  the  rear  of  the 
Japanese  lines,  a  naval  lookout  had  been 
erected,  and  there  behind  a  bomb-proof  shelter 
were  entrenched  several  marines  with  horned 
telescopes  focused  on  the  Tsingtau  forts.  As 
soon  as  a  shell  landed,  one  of  the  marines 

78 


THE  FLEET  BOMBARDS  THE  CITY 

would  telephone  the  exact  location  of  the  burst- 
ing shell  to  the  wireless  station  near  Lauschan 
and  immediately  the  message  would  be  relayed 
to  the  warships  standing  out  at  sea.  In  this 
way  gunners  on  the  Japanese  and  British  war- 
ships knew,  a  moment  after  each  shot,  whether 
the  great  shells  were  finding  their  marks  in 
the  German  forts.  As  a  result  few  shells  were 
wasted. 

Well  provided  with  maps,  the  gunners'  officers 
could  locate  the  spot  where  the  shell  dropped. 
If  it  was  not  a  "hit,"  the  big  gun's  aim  would 
be  changed,  guided  always  by  the  wireless. 

On  land,  the  Japanese  were  regulating  their 
gun-fire  in  somewhat  the  same  way.  An  ob- 
servation balloon  was  anchored  each  morning 
on  the  rear  line,  and  with  telephone  connection 
running  to  every  part  of  the  field,  the  observers 
were  able  to  make  the  gun-fire  much  more 
efficient.  Slowly  the  German  redoubts  and 
casement  walls  commenced  to  crumple  under 
the  severe  pounding  they  were  receiving,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  zigzag  lines  of  the  Japa- 
nese saps  were  noticed  to  be  continually  near- 
ing  the  German  front  defense  line. 

79 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Over  on  the  extreme  right,  near  the  Bay  of 
Kiaoehow,  the  gun-fire  was  extremely  heavy. 
General  Johoji,  with  General  Barnardiston  on 
his  left,  was  pressing  hard  the  entrenched 
Germans,  in  front  of  Moltke  Fort.  Early  in  the 
morning  General  Johoji  had  sent  a  detachment 
against  the  triangular  pumping  station  fort,  as 
it  was  deemed  wise  not  to  turn  the  siege  guns 
on  the  place,  because  the  fort  might  be  de- 
stroyed and  the  supply  of  water  be  cut  off  in 
the  city  when  the  troops  entered.  The  detach- 
ment approached  the  fort  without  any  resist- 
ance from  the  Germans  and  surrounding  it, 
discovered  that  there  was  a  small  garrison 
which  had  barred  itself  inside.  The  Japanese 
commanded  the  men  to  surrender,  threatening 
to  dynamite  the  place.  The  steel  door  was 
opened  and  twenty-three  Germans  walked  out. 

The  capture  of  this  fort  was  the  key  for  the 
final  attack  of  the  Japanese,  as  it  left  the  cen- 
tral fort  and  redoubts  exposed  to  fire. 

We  had  left  Commanding-General  Kamio 
early  in  the  morning,  after  taking  tea  with  him 
in  his  little  dugout  close  to  the  base  of  Prince 
Heinrich  Berg,  and  had  started  for  the  rear  line, 

80 


THE  FLEET  BOMBARDS  THE  CITY 

there  to  watch  the  fire  of  the  new  twenty-eight 
centimeter  siege  guns  that  were  just  being  put 
in  position  near  the  Litsun  River.  As  we  ap- 
proached the  line  Japanese  batteries  in  our  rear 
would  open  up  and  we  could  hear  a  shell  go 
tearing  through  the  air  with  a  noise  like  a  giant 
skyrocket. 

Through  zigzag  saps,  ten  feet  deep,  we  crept 
along,  now  hugging  the  bank  of  the  trench, 
with  occasional  stops,  to  make  way  for  stretch- 
ers bearing  the  wounded  from  the  front  line. 
The  wounded  and  the  dead  appeared  the  same, 
just  a  stretcher  with  its  bearers,  a  large,  heavy, 
blood-stained  canvas,  with,  perhaps,  an  arm 
dangling  or  a  heavy  boot  protruding. 

We  spent  the  whole  day  on  the  rear  line,  un- 
til a  snowstorm,  not  unlike  those  of  western 
Canada,  drove  us  to  the  charcoal  fire  of  the 
naval  lookout,  near  by. 

Here,  with  telescope,  were  entrenched  sev- 
eral marines,  all  seeking  to  mark  the  fire  of  the 
vessels  in  the  Yellow  Sea. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  the  fire  became  ex- 
tremely heavy.  The  Germans  seemed  to  be 
making  sharp  resistance  to  the  Japanese,  lest 

81 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

they  advance  within  the  quarter-mile  zone  of 
the  redoubt  walls.  The  Japanese  infantry, 
however,  were  sapping  away,  and  as  dusk  set- 
tled over  the  field  we  saw  the  bright  flash  of 
bursting  shrapnel  from  the  German  forts.  It 
was  the  first  shrapnel  sent  out  by  the  Germans 
during  the  siege. 

Ten,  twelve,  fifteen,  and  sometimes  even 
twenty  shrapnel  shells  could  be  counted  burst- 
ing at  one  time,  all  in  a  straight  line,  over  the 
Japanese  front  line,  and  then  the  big  German 
searchlights  would  flash  about  the  field.  They 
would  fall  on  fifteen  or  twenty  Japanese  sap- 
pers on  the  top  of  their  trenches  placing  sand- 
bags, and  then  the  flash  would  disappear.  A 
lull  for  a  minute  and  then  pom-pom-pom-pom' 
pom!  the  machine  guns  along  the  redoubt  walls 
would  open  up  and  for  fifteen  minutes  would 
pour  shot  into  the  fresh  trenches.  It  was  woe 
to  a  man  in  such  a  fire  who  was  wounded  away 
from  his  trench.  Exposed  to  all  guns.  Red 
Cross  workers  would  be  unable  to  get  to  him 
and  he  would  be  left  to  die  the  death  of  a 
soldier. 

All  night  long  the  firing  kept  up,  and  for 


QUARTERS  OF  THE  JAPANESE  STAFF  OFFICERS  DURING 
THE  CLOSING  DAYS  OF  THE  SIEGE 

Within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  rear  line  of  the  attacking  force  and  the  big  24- 
centimeter  siege  guns.  The  large  lean-to  in  the  foreground  was  the  home  of 
General  Kamio 


GERMAN  MACHINE-GUNS  ON  THE  REDOUBT  WALLS 
OF   THE  TSINGTAU   FORTS 

The  pom-pom-pom  of  these  guns  and  the  shriek  and  whistle  of  shrapnel  made 
a  nightmare  of  the  starlight  hours  during  the  closing  days  of  the  siege 


THE  FLEET  BOMBARDS  THE  CITY 

miles  into  the  hinterland  the  ground  trembled 
and  echoed  from  the  discharging  guns.  Tsing- 
tau  was  now  in  darkness,  Japanese  shells  hav- 
ing disabled  the  electric  power  plant  and  the 
flash  of  the  German  searchlights  from  the  forts 
was  missing.  Instead  star-shells  took  their 
place,  and  bursting  high  in  the  heavens  above 
the  entrenched  British  and  Japanese  forces 
they  flooded  the  country  with  daylight  and 
gave  a  spectacular  touch  to  the  fighting. 

Thursday,  November  5,  seemed  only  a  repe- 
tition of  what  had  been  witnessed  the  day 
before.  The  Tsingtau  forts  were  a  cloud  of 
smoke  and  dust  from  the  hundreds  of  shells 
that  were  falling  upon  their  slopes. 

I  took  tea  with  General  Kamio  in  the 
morning,  and  he  told  me  he  would  notify  me 
ahead  of  time  when  he  would  order  the  final 
attack  on  the  forts,  so  I  could  witness  it. 
Night,  of  course,  was  to  be  used  to  screen  the 
attack,  and  from  what  I  gathered  from  the 
staff  officers'  remarks,  it  was  to  be  a  stubborn 
affair,  with,  perhaps,  the  loss  of  more  than  an 
entire  regiment  —  eight  hundred  men. 

"Oh,  the  Japanese  are  getting  too  impa- 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

tient,"  said  Captain  Shaw,  back  in  the  British 
Red  Cross  camp,  a  few  hours  later.  "  It  will  be 
a  shame  if  they  make  that  attack,  for  I  am  go- 
ing to  lose  all  my  men  if  they  do.  And  that's 
what  hurts.  I  know  all  these  men,  I  Ve  worked 
with  the  most  of  them  for  years,  and  they  are 
all  good  chaps.  I  hate  to  give  them  up." 

In  fact  all  the  British  officers  at  Tsingtau, 
when  they  heard  that  the  Japanese  staff  officers 
were  planning  on  an  assault  of  the  Tsingtau 
fortifications,  were  down  in  heart.  The  British 
preference  was  for  slower  and  less  costly  meth- 
ods than  those  insisted  upon  by  the  Japanese 
commander.  The  viewpoints  of  the  two  armies 
seemed  to  hinge  on  the  judgment  of  the  profes- 
sional soldier,  such  as  Great  Britain's,  and  the 
soldier  of  conscription,  as  Japan's.  But  of  the 
professional  soldiers  there  were  not  and  could 
not  be  enough.  And  being  so  few.  General  Bar- 
nardiston,  as  well  as  the  other  officers,  were 
reluctant  to  sacrifice  them.  But  the  British 
general,  being  under  the  orders  of  General 
Kamio,  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  invest- 
ing forces,  had  to  abide  by  the  plans  of  the  lat- 
ter.  Due  to  the  lack  of  ammunition  in  Tsing- 

84 


THE  FLEET  BOMBARDS  THE  CITY 

tau,  the  assault,  when  it  did  take  place  two 
days  later,  did  not  prove  so  costly  of  life  as  was 
first  expected. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  the  Japanese  blockad- 
ing fleet  closed  in  on  the  southern  end  of  the 
entrance  to  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow  and  started 
a  bombardment  of  the  city  of  Tsingtau.  At 
first  the  Tsingtau  residents  were  unable  to 
locate  the  source  of  the  gun-fire  as  the  ships 
were  shielded  in  the  sea  by  Cape  Jaeschke. 
However,  to  the  city  itself  it  was  the  one  ex- 
citing moment  of  the  whole  war. 

With  shells  coming  right  into  the  city  front 
and  around  the  Prince  Heinrich  Hotel,  which 
was  being  utilized  as  a  hospital,  there  was  a 
hasty  retreat  for  cover  farther  into  the  city. 
Every  one  took  to  the  basements  and  there 
spent  the  night,  in  deadly  fear  of  the  large 
shells  which  were  crashing  into  building  fronts 
every  few  minutes. 

That  night  the  Japanese  forces  advanced 
two  hundred  yards  under  a  heavy  shrapnel  fire 
from  the  Germans.  A  snowstorm,  followed  by 
rain,  had  filled  the  trenches  with  water  a  foot 
deep,  and  it  was  in  these  that  the  Japanese  and 

85 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

British  forces  found  themselves  during  the 
closing  day  of  the  siege.  Friday,  November  6, 
was  a  bitter  morning.  A  forty-mile  gale  was 
blowing  oflF  the  Yellow  Sea,  and  with  the  ther- 
mometer at  two  below  zero  it  was  not  any  too 
comfortable  even  for  those  of  us  who  were 
fortunate  enough  to  get  near  a  charcoal  burner. 

Out  in  the  trenches  stood  the  troops,  in 
water  over  their  shoetops,  no  overcoats,  many 
without  mittens,  their  hands  on  cold  steel, 
without  the  warmth  of  a  fire  for  the  last  three 
days,  and  only  an  extra  ration  of  hot  tea  to 
keep  them  up. 

All  day  the  shrieks  from  the  shells  continued, 
but  when  I  returned  to  General  Kamio's  quar- 
ters, every  one  was  of  the  opinion  there  would 
be  only  one  more  day  of  this  and  then  the 
night  attack  of  the  infantry. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   SURRENDER 

The  fighting  during  the  closing  hours  of 
November  6  found  the  little  German  garrison 
at  Tsingtau  pressed  to  their  utmost  resistance 
against  the  inevitable.  For  more  than  two 
months  they  had  been  at  war  with  the  small 
khaki-clad  soldiers  of  the  Nippon  Empire,  not 
with  any  hope  of  finally  coming  out  victorious 
in  the  struggle,  but  simply  to  stave  oflf  the 
hour  when  they  must  lay  down  their  guns  and 
be  humiliated  by  seeing  the  Rising  Sun  flag 
replace  the  banner  of  the  Fatherland  above  the 
fortresses  of  the  German  protectorate.  That 
hour  had  come. 

But  twenty-five  yards  from  the  front  wall 
that  skirted  the  Tsingtau  fortresses  for  three 
miles  from  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow  on  the  right, 
to  the  Yellow  Sea  on  the  left,  was  entrenched 
the  front  line  of  the  Japanese  and  British  expe- 
ditionary forces.  Behind  this  line  of  under- 
ground fighters  was  another  line,  a  third,  and 

87 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

then  the  large,  massive  twenty-eight-centi- 
meter siege  guns  of  the  Japanese,  which  at  va- 
rious intervals  of  the  day  had  been  huriing 
projectiles  with  a  deafening  roar,  scattering 
death  within  the  walls  of  the  fortress  as  a  re- 
minder to  its  garrison  members  that  Germany 
must  leave  Asia. 

As  I  stood  on  the  rear  Japanese  line  that 
night,  close  to  General  Kamio's  dugout,  and 
gazed  toward  the  German  fortresses  at  Tsing- 
tau,  the  scene  before  me  appeared  much  like  a 
spectacular  pyrotechnic  exhibition.  Star-shells 
continually  fired  from  the  German  walls  would 
burst  in  the  heavens  above  and  for  several 
minutes  would  continually  keep  lit  the  field 
below.  Japanese  infantrymen  could  be  seen 
outside  fresh  trenches  placing  sandbags  and 
the  like,  and  with  darkness  covering  the  field 
again  there  would  be  a  few  seconds  of  deathly 
stillness  and  then  the  machine  guns  along  the 
redoubt  walls  of  the  Tsingtau  forts  would  open 
up.  From  all  about  the  field  in  front  there  ap- 
peared the  bright  red  flash  of  flames  as  field 
and  siege  guns  went  into  action,  and  the  echo 
of  their  deep  roaring  undertones  would  at 

88 


THE  SURRENDER 

length  subside  into  the  ripping  pom-pom-pom 
of  the  German  machine  guns  as  they  at- 
tempted to  check  the  advance  of  the  Japanese 
sappers. 

Toward  midnight,  the  fire  from  the  Tsing- 
tau  forts  had  slackened  somewhat,  —  due,  as 
afterwards  learned,  to  the  giving-out  of  am- 
munition supplies,  —  and  noting  this  condi- 
tion of  affairs,  General  Yamada,  whose  men 
were  entrenched  in  front  of  Forts  2  and  3, 
sent  out  a  detachment  to  learn  the  condition 
of  the  garrison  opposing  him. 

The  men  approached  the  redoubt  walls  of 
the  forts,  climbed  down  ten  feet  to  the  bottom, 
and  found  themselves  facing  wire  entangle- 
ments, ten  yards  wide  and  running  the  length 
of  the  wall.  No  Germans  were  seen.  Reinforce- 
ments were  called  for  while  the  advance  guard 
was  cutting  the  entanglements,  and  by  1  a.m. 
on  the  morning  of  November  7,  General  Ya- 
mada with  more  than  three  hundred  men  was 
behind  the  central  redoubt  walls  of  the  German 
forts. 

In  the  mean  time,  heavily  protected  on  all 
sides  by  planks  and  sandbags,  a  detachment  of 

89 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

two  hundred  Germans,  with  machine  guns,  was 
watching  the  approach  of  General  Barnardis- 
ton's  men,  who  had  been  stationed  to  the  right 
of  General  Yamada.  The  Germans  were  una- 
ware that  the  Japanese  had  gained  the  wall 
when  suddenly  a  sentry  heard  Japanese  voices 
in  the  inky  blackness  before  him  and  the  signal 
was  given. 

Rushing  from  their  little  sandbag  fortress, 
the  German  detachment  hurried  in  the  shadow 
of  the  redoubt  wall  toward  the  casemate  ap- 
proaches, hoping,  in  so  doing,  to  reach  their 
comrades  stationed  five  hundred  yards  back 
along  the  casemate  walls.  Some  undoubtedly 
reached  their  destination,  but  the  majority  of 
the  men  were  shot  down  by  the  Japanese  as 
they  ran  toward  the  approaches  unconscious 
that  Japanese  guards  were  there. 

The  capture  of  Forts  2  and  3  by  General 
Yamada  was  quickly  reported  to  General  Hori- 
uchi,  and  within  an  hour  his  men  had  captured 
Forts  4  and  5  with  little  resistance.  General 
Johoji,  on  the  extreme  right,  with  the  British 
expeditionary  force  to  his  left,  under  General 
Barnardiston,  also  advanced  with  the  news  of 

90 


GERMAN  BARBED-WIRE  ENTANGLEMENTS 

Along  the  redoubt  walls  of  the  Tsingtau  forts 


GENERAL  HORIUCHI  ON  THE  CREST  OF  MOLTKE  FORT 

He  stands  smiling,  with  a  chrysanthemum,  the  Japanese  national  emblem,  in 
front  of  him.   He  and  his  men  had  captured  this  fort 


THE  SURRENDER 

the  capture  of  the  positions,  but  the  Tsingtau 
garrison  seemed  to  have  concentrated  its  at- 
tack at  this  position  and  General  Johoji's  ad- 
vance was  met  with  stubborn  resistance. 

UtiHzing  the  high-banked  macadam  road- 
way that  runs  from  Litsun  into  Tsingtau  as  a 
cover,  the  British  force  was  able  to  advance  to 
the  Tsingtau  redoubt  walls  without  suffering 
much  damage,  and,  after  tearing  a  hole 
through  the  stone  guard,  was  able  to  capture 
the  fort.  The  capture  of  Fort  No.  1  by  the 
British  was  closely  followed  by  General  Johoji's 
capture  of  the  coast  fort  at  6.30  a.m. 

The  German  front  and  second  line  of  defense 
was  now  in  full  retreat  toward  the  three  moun- 
tain forts,  litis,  Bismarck,  and  Moltke,  about 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  the  rear  of  the  captured 
redoubt  and  casemate  fortifications.  General 
Yamashita,  chief  of  the  Japanese  staff,  realiz- 
ing now  the  weakened  condition  of  the  Ger- 
mans, ordered  General  Yamada  and  General 
Horiuchi  to  advance  with  detachments  of  engi- 
neers and  infantrymen  and  to  begin  the  general 
attack. 

After  weeks  in  rain-filled  trenches,  the  at- 
91 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

tacking  force  was  only  too  eager  to  begin  the 
hand-to-hand  encounter  that  would  eventually 
mean  the  surrender  of  Tsingtau,  and  so  with 
orders  given,  they  rushed  from  their  trenches 
over  the  redoubt  walls  and  behind  the  advance 
Japanese  guard  started  their  charge  up  the 
steep  slopes  of  the  Tsingtau  mountainous  for- 
tresses that  rose  one  thousand  feet  high. 

With  bayonets  in  front  of  them  gleaming  in 
the  glow  of  the  morning  sun,  just  rising  as  a 
ball  of  fire  from  above  the  horizon  of  the  Yel- 
low Sea,  the  attacking  force  charged  up  the 
slopes.  Two  guns  on  litis  Fort  had  been  si- 
lenced; the  four  big  twenty-eight-centimeter 
mortars  on  the  same  fort  were  useless  for  work 
at  the  base  of  litis,  while  the  other  guns,  mak- 
ing up  the  German  equipment,  had  been  so 
placed  and  sandbagged  at  the  rear  of  the  forts 
that  they  could  not  be  quickly  brought  forward 
and  utilized  for  work  along  the  steep  slopes 
leading  to  their  summit.  Rifles  and  machine 
guns  were  resorted  to. 

The  Japanese,  as  they  charged  up  the  slopes, 
were  mowed  down  by  the  machine  guns,  but  on 
they  came  from  all  sides  —  17,000  men  against 

92 


THE  SURRENDER 

3800.  The  German  garrison  could  not  hold 
out  and  the  white  flag  was  seen  suddenly  to 
be  hoisted  from  near  the  Governor-General 
Meyer-Waldeck's  residence.  The  surrender 
came  at  7.05  a.m. 

As  the  white  flag  struck  the  top  of  its  mast 
the  air  about  the  forts  was  suddenly  rent  by 
the  *'banzaiing"  of  the  victorious  troops.  For 
twenty  minutes  the  cheering  kept  up,  until  at 
length  it  was  replaced  by  the  appearance  of  the 
Rising  Sun  flag  floating  from  the  peak  of  every 
fort  and  hill  in  the  neighborhood.  Thus  had 
Germany's  dream  of  domain  in  the  East  come 
suddenly  to  an  end. 


CHAPTER  X 

AFTER   THE   CITY's   FALL 

Scenes  of  havoc  met  the  eyes  of  the  Japan- 
ese staff  officers  when  they  entered  the  fallen 
forts  of  Tsingtau.  With  dynamite  and  nitro- 
glycerine the  German  defenders  had  destroyed 
the  guns  and  demolished  all  that  might  be 
taken  by  the  captors  as  trophies  of  war. 
Along  the  casemate  walls  of  the  forts  still  lay 
the  German  and  Japanese  soldiers  who  had 
been  killed  in  the  final  assault,  while  the 
concrete  forts  themselves  were  just  a  mass  of 
shale  and  twisted  steel  rods  where  dynamite 
or  falling  shells  had  done  their  work. 

Into  the  forts  the  Japanese  filed  and,  collect- 
ing all  the  German  soldiers  together  in  lots, 
marched  them  to  the  barbed-wire  entangle- 
ments in  the  rear  of  the  city  and  after  a  short 
rest  took  them  to  the  foot  of  Prince  Heinrich 
Berg,  where  a  prison  camp  had  been  impro- 
vised. The  German  officers,  however,  through 

94 


AFTER  THE  CITY'S  FALL 

the  courtesy  of  the  Japanese  commander,  were 
allowed  to  remain  in  Tsingtau. 

The  courtesy  of  the  Japanese,  for  which  the 
Orient  is  already  famous,  received  an  excellent 
demonstration  in  the  surrender  of  Tsingtau. 
General  Kamio,  commander-in-chief,  realizing 
that  to  march  his  victorious  troops  through  the 
city  of  Tsingtau  would  throw  the  residents  into 
much  confusion  and  disorder,  made  the  direct 
surrender  appear  like  a  capitulation  on  terms. 
All  German  officers,  including  Governor-Gen- 
eral Meyer- Waldeck,  were  allowed  to  go  about 
Tsingtau  at  their  freedom  after  the  surrender, 
and  General  Kamio  at  once  posted  orders  that 
only  the  Japanese  staff  officers  would  be  al- 
lowed to  enter  the  city  for  several  days.  Japa- 
nese pickets  were  placed  along  the  roads  out- 
side of  the  city  to  see  that  this  regulation  was 
enforced. 

For  several  days,  then,  while  the  Japanese 
troops  were  quartered  in  Moltke  and  Bismarck 
Barracks  in  the  rear  of  Tsingtau,  and  the  Brit- 
ish force  was  also  in  German  barracks,  the  resi- 
dents of  Tsingtau  were  given  free  opportunity 
to  recover  from  their  besieged  life  without 

95 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

being  ruffled  by  the  sight  of  marching  and 
quartered  troops. 

During  that  period  between  the  surrender 
of  the  Tsingtau  forts  and  November  16,  when 
the  British  and  Japanese  expeditionary  forces 
made  their  triumphal  entry  into  the  city,  the 
Japanese  officers  busied  themselves  in  the  final 
preparations  for  the  transfer  of  the  German 
possessions  into  the  hands  of  Dai  Nippon.  The 
rest  of  the  troops  spent  the  days  in  examining 
the  Tsingtau  forts  and  gradually  the  "why- 
fore"  of  their  surrender  was  answered. 

On  litis  Fort  were  mounted  six  twelve-centi- 
meter guns,  two  of  which  had  been  captured 
from  the  French  in  the  siege  of  Paris  in  1871. 
On  the  left  of  this  battery  and  toward  the  rear 
of  the  fort  had  been  placed  four  twenty-eight- 
centimeter  mortars,  while  two  10.5-centimeter 
guns  cast  in  1889,  which  had  seen  service  in  the 
siege  of  Taku  in  1900,  made  up  the  remainder 
of  the  fort's  equipment. 

Bismarck  Fort,  to  the  left  of  litis,  seemed  to 
be  the  most  strongly  fortified  of  any  of  the 
Tsingtau  defenses.  Besides  four  twenty-eight- 
centimeter  howitzers  and  two  twenty-one-cen- 

96 


AFTER  THE  CITY'S  FALL 

timeter  guns,  it  contained  the  Tsingtau  battery 
of  four  fifteen-centimeter  guns. 

At  Moltke  Fort,  on  the  bay  side  of  the  city, 
the  German  garrison  had  mounted  two  fifteen- 
centimeter  guns  stripped  from  the  Austrian 
cruiser  Kaiserin  Elisabeth,  a  field  battery  of 
ten  pieces,  three  field  howitzers,  and  several 
small  guns  taken  from  the  second-class  Ger- 
man gunboats  and  cruisers  that  had  been  al- 
lowed to  be  bottled  up  in  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow. 

The  two  German  forts  which  commanded 
the  sea  approaches  were  Huit-chien-huk  and 
Tscha-nui-va.  The  first  was  equipped  with 
two  twenty-four-centimeter  guns  and  three  fif- 
teen-centimeter guns,  while  the  latter's  equip- 
ment consisted  of  two  twenty-one-centimeter 
guns  which  had  been  taken  from  the  Chinese 
Taku  forts  in  1900. 

The  German  garrison  at  'I'singtau  at  the 
opening  of  the  war,  knowing  that  their  surren- 
der was  inevitable,  had  made  all  plans  to  keep 
as  far  as  possible  all  trophies  of  war  from  falling 
into  the  enemy's  hands  after  surrender.  The 
result  was  that  early  on  the  morning  of  the  7th, 
after  the  Japanese  infantry  had  gained  the 

97 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

redoubt  walls,  all  preparations  were  made  by 
the  garrison  for  destroying  the  guns. 

The  breech-block  of  each  was  wound  with 
nitroglycerine  and  dynamite  was  placed  in  the 
cannons  up  to  the  muzzle  edge.  The  white  flag 
was  the  signal.  A  few  minutes  later,  when  the 
Japanese  forces  swarmed  the  forts,  they  found 
the  place  a  mass  of  wreckage.  Big  twenty-four- 
centimeter  guns  were  split  in  two  as  evenly  and 
neatly  as  if  they  had  been  cut  by  a  jack-knife, 
while  one  hundred  or  more  yards  distant  could 
be  found  all  that  remained  of  the  breech- 
block. The  four  twenty  -  eight  -  centimeter 
mortars  on  litis  had  been  dynamited  and  just 
a  mass  of  twisted  steel  and  splintered  plates 
remained. 

On  Bismarck  and  Moltke  Forts,  many  of  the 
guns  had  been  backed  in  against  the  sandbag 
walls  and  dynamited  on  their  carriages.  The 
discharge  had  left  the  place  scattered  with  the 
broken  pieces  of  the  carriages  and  split  sand- 
bags. The  guns  in  the  majority  of  cases  had 
fallen  down  to  the  foot  of  the  casemate  walls. 
The  explosions  of  the  dynamite  also  appeared 
to  have  wrecked  adjacent  walls,  for  the  con- 

98 


THE  FOOT  OF  THE  CASEMATE  WALLS  THIRTY  MINUTES 
AFTER  THE  SURRENDER 

Fatigued  by  their  past  thirty-six  hours  of  work  in  storming  the  German  forts, 
the  attacking  force  dropped  wherever  the  white  flag  found  them,  and  there 
they  slumbered  while  the  soldiers  of  the  German  garrison  (in  the  background) 
smiled  upon  their  conquerors 


THE  MOLTKK   liAliltAC  KS   AFTER  THE   SURRENDER 

Showing  the  effects  of  Japanese  shrapnel.  Sandbags  were  placed  about  build- 
ings in  the  city  to  keep  shells  from  undermining  them 


AFTER  THE  CITY'S  FALL 

Crete  work  about  the  gun-stands  seemed  to  be 
so  much  shale.  Exposed  to  sight  were  the  steel 
pipes  and  wire  used  in  the  construction  of  the 
forts,  all  twisted  and  broken. 

This  desire  to  keep  trophies  of  war  from  the 
hands  of  the  enemy  was  not  confined  alone  to 
guns.  From  the  various  post-offices  German 
officials  gathered  the  colony's  issue  of  postage 
stamps  and  all  were  burned.  Men  had  evi- 
dently been  detailed  to  handle  the  storehouses, 
for  all  about  them  I  found  large  cans  of  corned 
beef,  sausages,  milk,  saurkraut  and  German 
delicacies  opened  and  lying  in  heaps,  their 
contents  untouched. 

All  valuable  papers  in  the  vaults  of  Govern- 
ment buildings  that  contained  military  secrets 
or  maps  of  fortifications  throughout  the  Far 
East,  were  also  made  way  with;  in  fact  the 
German  garrison  left  little  that  the  Japanese 
could  boast  about,  except  the  city  of  Tsingtau 
itself. 

As  officially  given  out  by  the  War  Office,  the 
Japanese  forces  had  a  total  of  142  guns  on  the 
firing  line.  They  consisted  of  6  28-centimeter 
howitzers,  72  other  siege  guns  of  15-  and  24- 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

centimeters,  18  mountain  guns,  36  field  pieces, 
and  8  4.7  and  6-inch  guns  of  the  marine  de- 
tachment. 

According  to  figures  given  me  by  General 
Kamio,  the  total  active  fighting  force  of  the 
Japanese  during  the  siege  was  20,000  men, 
while  the  British  expedition  force  consisted  of 
925  regulars,  with  a  regiment  of  300  Sikhs. 

Opposing  them  was  the  German  force  of 
4500  men,  more  than  700  of  whom  were  sick  or 
wounded  or  captured  before  the  actual  siege 
started. 

Among  the  criticisms  directed  against  the 
defenders  of  Tsingtau,  which  I  heard  after  the 
surrender,  especially  in  the  British  camp,  was 
that  the  Germans  fired  away  great  quantities 
of  ammunition  at  the  beginning  of  the  bom- 
bardment of  the  fortifications  so  that,  with 
their  supply  exhausted,  an  excuse  for  the  sur- 
render could  be  made.  In  proof  of  this  they 
referred  to  the  large  number  of  shells  which  fell 
daily  about  the  Japanese  forces  while  they 
were  getting  the  big  siege  guns  into  position. 
The  estimate  of  "  more  than  two  thousand  Ger- 
man shells  in  twelve  hours'  firing  with  no  casu- 

100 


AFTER  THE  CITY^S  FAlX        -  *^ 

allies  to  the  Japanese  or  British  forces,"  was 
further  evidence  given. 

On  my  first  trip  into  Tsingtau  I  met  a  Ger- 
man officer  in  the  Prince  Heinrich  Hotel,  who 
had  taken  part  in  the  siege,  and  questioned 
him  as  to  the  truth  of  the  statement. 

"  Maybe  that  is  what  they  say,  but  the  facts 
are  the  garrison  had  expected  Tsingtau  to  fall 
sooner  than  it  did.  Our  heavy  artillery  fire  was 
not  kept  up  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  away 
our  shells,  —  it  would  have  been  less  dangerous 
to  have  dropped  them  in  the  bay,  —  but  solely 
to  do  as  much  damage  to  the  Japanese  as  pos- 
sible before  the  assault  on  the  fortifications 
could  be  made.  We  regulated  our  fire  with  the 
one  purpose  of  covering  the  country  with  shells 
before  they  had  a  chance  to  get  under  cover. 
When  they  attempted  to  mount  their  siege  guns 
at  the  start  of  the  bombardment  their  forces 
were  exposed  to  us.  We  could  see  their  ammu- 
nition columns  and  supply  wagons  rolling  up 
on  open  roads  and,  by  spreading  our  fire  about 
the  valley,  we  were  attempting  solely  to  post- 
pone the  fall  of  Tsingtau  as  much  as  possible 
by  hindering  the  allied  forces  in  their  work." 

101 


'  THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

The  officer  then  went  on  to  tell  me  of  the 
ruse  Lieutenant  Trendel,  manager  of  the 
Wagonlits  Hotel  at  Peking,  who  took  part  in 
the  siege,  played  on  the  Japanese.  Trendel 
was  in  command  of  a  battery  of  six  old  nine- 
centimeter  ships'  guns  which  were  in  an  ex- 
posed position  on  a  ridge  near  litis  Fort.  This 
battery  received  a  fire  from  both  the  ship  and 
land  guns,  and  the  men  could  be  seen  on  the 
first  day  of  the  bombardment  building  bomb- 
proofs  in  the  dust  and  smoke  from  exploding 
shells. 

In  the  night  Lieutenant  Trendel  put  up 
wooden  guns,  roughly  shaped  from  beams,  at 
a  distance  of  two  hundred  yards  from  his  own 
guns.  In  the  morning,  he  exploded  powder 
near  them  to  give  an  appearance  of  firing  from 
them.  By  his  ruse  he  diverted  the  Japanese 
fire  and  saved  all  his  men,  dynamiting  his  guns 
before  the  surrender. 

Governor-General  Waldeck,  after  the  sur- 
render, made  the  following  statement  as  to  the 
bombardment :  — 

The  combatant  force  atTsingtau  did  not  amount 
to  more  than  forty-five  hundred.   The  permanent 


AFTER  THE  CITY'S  FALL 

garrison  consisted  of  eighteen  hundred  men  nomi- 
nally, but  was,  in  reality,  about  two  hundred  short. 
Some  of  those  under  arms  were  mere  boys.  Each 
fort  was  defended  by  about  two  hundred  men. 

The  Tsingtau  guns  were  mostly  weapons  cap- 
tured from  the  Boxers  during  their  rebellion,  or 
trophies  of  the  Franco-German  War,  and  were  no 
match  for  modern  arms.  The  Huichuan  and  Bis- 
marck Forts,  however,  had  some  modern  pieces. 
Altogether  there  were,  for  the  defense,  about  sixty 
guns  and  a  hundred  machine  guns. 

The  litis  fort  was  guarded  by  sixty  men.  The 
Japanese  in  their  assault  charged  up  under  a  hot 
fire  as  if  unconscious  of  their  danger,  and  gained 
the  position  before  the  defenders  could  call  rein- 
forcements. 

The  Bismarck  and  Moltke  Forts  were  also  taken 
by  a  charge,  but  for  the  most  part  the  Japanese 
conducted  their  attack  under  cover  of  their 
trenches,  and  concealed  themselves  so  well  that  the 
most  searching  German  fire  could  not  stop  their 
advance.  At  length  the  supply  of  ammunition  ran 
out,  and  further  defense  was  futile.  I  thought  the 
Japanese  casualties  would  be  very  heavy,  as  they 
fought  bravely  and  charged  desperately,  and  I  esti- 
mated their  loss  at  five  to  six  thousand.  I  have 
been  astonished  to  learn  that  the  loss  in  killed  and 
wounded  amounts  to  only  seventeen  hundred. 
They  certainly  showed  remarkable  skill  in  taking 
cover. 

Tsingtau  was  not  an  ideal  fortification,  such  as 
Antwerp.  Strictly  speaking,  it  was  merely  a  de- 
fended position.    As  possible  enemies  in  the  Far 

103 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

East,  Germany  had  calculated  only  on  England, 
France,  and  Russia.  It  was  quite  unexpected  that 
the  blow  would  come  from  so  good  a  friend  as 
Japan. 

The  fire  from  the  Japanese  squadron  was  not  so 
furious  as  to  cause  any  great  inconvenience,  except 
once  when  a  shell  landed  in  the  Huichan  Point 
Fort,  killed  thirteen  and  severely  wounded  three. 
In  respect  of  accuracy  of  range  the  fire  of  the  Brit- 
ish cruiser  Triumph  was  inferior  to  that  of  Japanese 
ships.  The  land  fire,  however,  was  terrible.  A  per- 
fect rain  of  shells  fell  on  the  Bismarck,  litis,  and 
Hsiaochau  Forts,  and  the  central  batteries  suffered 
severely.  One  of  them  received  as  many  as  a  hun- 
dred shells,  and  it  was  death  to  leave  the  trenches 
for  an  instant. 

Two  days  after  the  surrender  I  was  able  to 
get  through  the  picket  line  thrown  about  the 
rear  of  the  city  of  Tsingtau,  and  could  observe 
better  just  what  damage  had  been  done  to  the 
city  during  the  seven  days  of  bombardment. 

The  city  appeared  as  if  a  typhoon  had  passed 
through  it.  Its  wide  asphalt  and  macadamized 
streets,  fronted  by  beautiful  four  and  five 
story  buildings  of  German  architecture,  were 
vacant.  Giant  shells,  some  three  feet  long  and 
a  foot  in  diameter,  were  lying  about  on  side- 
walk and  street  still  unexploded.  Trees,  splin- 

104 


AFTER  THE  CITY'S  FALL 

tered  at  their  bases,  lay  toppled  over  in  the 
avenues.  Windows  in  the  houses  were  shat- 
tered, while  gaunt  holes  in  the  sides  of  build- 
ings, where  shells  had  torn  their  way,  made  the 
residence  blocks  appear  to  be  gasping  for  air. 

Out  in  the  harbor  could  be  seen  the  spars  of 
the  Rickmers  and  two  or  three  other  German 
freighters,  which  had  been  sunk  at  the  opening 
of  hostilities  about  the  cityj  while  farther  out 
in  the  channel  was  the  grave  of  the  Austrian 
cruiser,  Kaiserin  Elisabeth,  which  had  been 
sunk  by  the  Germans. 

The  whole  scene  seemed  one  of  devastation. 
Streets  deserted  of  people,  show-fronts  of 
stores  completely  gone,  as  was  also  the  mer- 
chandise, harbors  deserted  of  ships,  and  not 
even  a  sign  of  a  ricksha  to  remind  you  of  the 
Orient. 

Such  was  Tsingtau  as  I  jBrst  saw  it  two  days 
after  its  surrender.  But  for  the  continual  sight 
of  the  Rising  Sun  flag  flapping  from  every  peak 
in  the  rear  of  the  city,  as  well  as  from  every 
Government  building,  and  its  message  of  "oc- 
cupied," one  would  have  thought  Tsingtau  a 
city  deserted. 


CHAPTER  XI 

TAKING   POSSESSION 

The  transfer  of  Tsingtau  to  the  allied  forces 
was  commenced  on  November  11,  and,  two 
days  later,  the  majority  of  the  German  oflBcers 
who  were  not  needed  by  the  Japanese  in  spot- 
ting the  land  mines  were  marched  off  to  Ses- 
heco  to  be  transported  to  Japan.  During  the 
final  transfer  I  lingered  about  the  field  below 
Moltke  Barracks,  on  which  had  gathered  about 
one  thousand  German  prisoners  of  war,  with 
their  oflBcers.  As  Governor-General  Waldeck 
and  his  oflScers  were  going  through  roll-call,  the 
scuff-scuff-scuff  sound  of  marching  troops  was 
heard  along  the  roadway  near  by  leading  over 
a  small  slope.  The  sound  of  the  heavy  boots 
hitting  the  ground  was  shortly  followed  by  the 
whistling  of  many  men,  and  all  the  heads  in  the 
field  below  quickly  turned  toward  the  crest  of 
the  hill,  where  the  road  disappeared. 

In  a  few  minutes  they  appeared  in  sight  — 
first  four  bayonets,  four  khaki-colored  helmets, 

loa 


TAKING  POSSESSION 

then  four  men,  another  four  men  —  nine  hun- 
dred strong,  the  British  expeditionary  force, 
marching  to  the  German  barracks,  whistUng 
"Everybody's  Doing  It." 

At  the  sight  the  heads  in  the  field  below  im- 
mediately turned  toward  Governor-General 
Waldeck,  while  the  faces  of  neutrals  on  the  side 
lines  turned  into  smiles.  That  tune  whistled  by 
the  Britishers  evidently  grated  on  the  field 
below,  and  a  few  minutes  later,  when  an  officer 
shouted  in  German  for  the  men  to  form  on  the 
roadway,  one  thousand  voices  burst  into  a 
German  war  song. 

I  stood  by  the  roadway  as  they  formed;  some 
with  heavy  packs  strapped  to  their  backs, 
others  carrying  accordions,  mandolins,  and 
guitars  in  their  hands.  As  they  marched  by 
me,  all  stared. 

"English* or  American.'^"  some  would  ask. 

With  the  nod  of  my  head  to  the  latter  they 
seemed  to  rest  content  and  would  pass  the 
remark  on  to  the  other,  "newspaperman." 

Five  days  later,  the  formal  entry  of  the  al- 
lied forces  took  place  at  Tsingtau.  Following 
the  review  of  the  forces  by  General  Kamio  and 

107 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

his  stajBF,  the  troops  marched  to  the  Strand  on 
the  Yellow  Sea,  where  a  wooden  monument, 
much  like  Cleopatra's  Needle,  stood  banked  in 
the  center  of  the  sands.  Large  straw-wrapped 
casks  of  sake,  or  Japanese  wine,  stood  on  each 
side  of  the  monument,  a  gift  to  the  departed 
souls  of  the  Japanese  dead,  from  their  Emperor 
and  Empress.  Heaped  on  top  of  the  casks  were 
thousands  of  cigarettes,  bowls  of  rice,  chrysan- 
themums, the  national  flower  of  the  Empire,  and 
many  eatables  much  prized  by  the  Japanese. 

After  all  the  troops  had  assembled  facing 
the  monument.  General  Kamio  approached  it 
with  a  large  scroll  in  his  hand.  All  helmets  and 
caps  of  the  troops  in  front  of  him  went  oflP.  He 
stepped  on  to  the  path  leading  directly  to  the 
monument,  took  off  his  cap,  bowed,  and  then 
approached.  Stopping  within  a  foot  of  the 
monument.  General  Kamio  bowed  again,  and 
then  slowly  opened  the  scroll.  Not  a  sound 
could  be  heard  in  that  gathering  of  thousands 
in  front  of  the  monument,  except  an  occasional 
neigh  of  a  cavalry  horse. 

The  scroll  opened,  he  read  from  it  in  Japa- 
nese the  following  message  to  the  dead:  — 

108 


k  ^    .       ^^              *JH 

TRIUMPHAL  ENTRY  OF  THE  JAPANESE   TROOPS  INTO  TSINGTAU 

The  military  attaches  of  the  United  States,  Greece,  Spain,  and  France  on  the 
left,  in  front  of  the  Asiatic-Deutsch  bank 


l'AYiN(j    liESPECT  TO   THE   SOULS   OF   THE  JAPANESE  DEAD 
Before  the  monument  erected  on  the  shores  of  the  Yellow  Sea  at  Tsingtau 


TAKING  POSSESSION 

I,  the  humble  General  Kamio,  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  Japanese  forces,  express  my  hearty 
condolences  to  the  souls  of  the  dead  who  have  been 
killed  in  battle  or  who  have  passed  away  from  ill- 
ness contracted  during  our  days  of  war. 

My  Imperial  Majesty's  reason  for  declaring  war 
against  Germany  was  because  Germany  had  ex- 
panded her  war  politics  to  the  Far  East.  They 
occupied  Tsingtau,  and  forced  our  neighboring 
Government,  China,  to  give  it  up,  thus  destroying 
the  peace  of  the  Far  East.  Our  Imperial  Majesty 
was  therefore  called  upon  to  drive  the  disturbing 
element  from  our  hitherto  peaceful  shores. 

I,  the  humble  General  Kamio,  was  appointed  to 
be  commander-in-chief  of  the  allied  army  in  its 
operation  against  Tsingtau.  I  and  my  staff,  from 
early  morning  until  late  at  night,  have  labored 
hard  to  achieve  the  desire  of  our  Imperial  Majesty 
and  now  Tsingtau  is  occupied  by  the  allied  army. 

Its  surrender  is  the  result  of  the  grace  of  heaven, 
the  virtues  of  our  Emperor  and  Empress,  and  the 
bravery  of  those  passed  souls  which  we  honor  to- 
day. We  are  assembled  here  to  comfort  you,  O 
souls,  and  I  ask  that  you  receive  the  condolences 
which  I,  representing  the  surviving  army,  give 
to  you  to-day. 

The  rites  were  those  of  Shintoism  and,  as  be- 
lieved, the  souls  of  the  men  killed  and  buried 
during  the  war,  all  gathered  at  this  monument. 
As  General  Kamio  finished  reading  from  the 
scroll,  an  aide  stepped  up  and  handed  him  a 

109 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

pine  branch  —  the  Japanese  symbol  for  long 
life  —  and  the  commander-in-chief  placed  it 
upon  the  monument,  bowed,  and  stepped 
down  along  the  path  that  faced  the  troops. 
The  impressive  ceremony  was  over. 

The  troops  then  returned  to  their  quarters, 
while  the  officers  of  the  Japanese  and  British 
forces  were  entertained  at  a  banquet  in  Bis- 
marck Barracks. 

Tsingtau  had  now  formally  passed  into  the 
hands  of  Japan,  and  but  two  weeks  later  the 
British  expeditionary  force  returned  to  Hong- 
kong on  the  Triumph,  and  later  embarked 
again  for  the  war  in  Europe.  The  Triumph 
proceeded  to  the  Suez  Canal,  afterwards  dis- 
tinguishing herself  in  the  siege  of  the  Darda- 
nelles, but  was  sunk  later  by  the  enemy's 
torpedo. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SANITATION   AND   DISCIPLINE 

As  to  the  military  organization  of  the  Japa- 
nese, I  think  the  operations  of  their  troops  in 
Shantung  will  add  little  to  their  reputation  for 
scientific  work.  Surely  on  one  point  —  that  of 
sanitation  —  the  military  a^^acA^^  of  Holland,. 
Spain,  France,  Greece,  and  the  United  States^ 
who  were  present  with  the  Japanese  army  dur- 
ing their  war  operations,  if  they  can  speak,  will 
bear  me  out  on  the  point  that  sanitation  was 
something  wholly  lacking  in  the  Japanese  war- 
camps. 

Military  experts  will  tell  you  that  in  a  cam- 
paign when  the  troops  move  camp,  ditches 
should  be  dug  almost  before  tents  are  pitched. 
The  Japanese  war-camps  I  found  the  exception; 
to  this  rule.  Even  in  the  question  of  "mess 
refuse,"  I  found  upon  inspection  that  the  Japa- 
nese provided  no  ditches.  Rivers  and  creeks, 
already  typhoidal,  were  principally  used  as  the 
dumping-grounds  of  camp  refuse,  and  days 

111 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

after  the  camps  had  passed,  the  bivouacking 
spot  would  stand  out  as  a  stain  upon  nature: 
tin  cans  and  rubbish  all  about,  with  old  meat, 
and  rice,  paper,  and  other  refuse  cluttering. 

Even  during  my  days  with  the  Japanese 
army  in  the  model  German  barracks  of  Moltke 
Fort,  I  found  this  same  Japanese  lack  of  sani- 
tation. Unprintable,  is  the  way  to  describe  the 
conditions  resulting  from  the  complaisance  of 
the  Japanese  officers  in  permitting  the  soldier 
inmates  to  litter  doorsteps  and  hallways  with 
refuse. 

But  this  disorder  of  Japanese  camps,  not 
only  applied  to  sanitation,  but  as  well  to  the 
handling  of  their  troops  after  the  surrender. 

With  the  recent  history  of  Japan  showing 
that  the  little  island  nation  goes  to  war  at  in- 
tervals of  every  ten  years,  and  with  its  large 
army  of  conscription  not  knowing  what  defeat 
is,  they  are  continuously  kept  under  the  intoxi- 
cation of  victory,  with  the  result  that  careless- 
ness is  bred  among  them. 

With  the  surrender  of  Tsingtau  the  Japanese 
generals  appeared  to  have  lost  control  over 
their  men.    "There  was  quite  a  little  looting 

112 


SANITATION  AND  DISCIPLINE 

going  on  by  the  Japanese  yesterday,"  said  a 
British  captain  to  me  the  day  after  the  surren- 
der; but  for  the  next  several  days  when  I  vis- 
ited the  city  I  found  that  the  statement  ap- 
plied to  more  than  "yesterday."  Wherever  I 
went  I  was  met  by  faces  of  Japanese  soldiers 
peering  from  deserted  German  residences. 
Upon  a  further  inspection  I  found  them  search- 
ing through  bureau  drawers  and  going  out  of 
back  doors  with  articles  of  various  sorts. 

Not  for  an  instant  do  I  think  the  oflBcers  of 
the  Japanese  army  allow  their  troops  to  loot,  for 
I  think  the  Japanese  Empire  passed  that  stage 
of  affairs  after  the  relief  of  Peking,  during  the 
Boxer  Rebellion.  But  what  I  saw  taking  place 
in  Tsingtau  after  the  surrender  only  bears  out 
the  statement  that  the  Japanese  army  is 
becoming  careless. 

I  do  not  think  the  Tokyo  Government  can 
dispute  the  point,  when  it  accounts  for  the 
many  deaths  that  occurred  to  its  soldiers  dur- 
ing the  week  after  the  surrender,  from  explod- 
ing land  mines  and  the  like.  With  practically 
every  one  in  the  war  zone  after  the  surrender 
knowing  the  vicinities  of  the  dangerous  mined 

113 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

ground,  and  with  German  officers  right  on  the 
spot  with  maps  showing  the  exact  location  of 
each  mine,  there  seems  very  Kttle  excuse  for 
such  accidents,  except  as  control  of  the  army  is 
lax  and  men  are  allowed  to  roam  around  at 
will. 

On  November  8,  I  heard  a  rumor  in  Tsing- 
tau  that  forty  Japanese  soldiers  and  one  officer 
had  been  killed  in  an  explosion  of  a  land  mine 
near  Moltke  Fort.  When  I  questioned  Jap- 
anese officers  regarding  the  matter,  none  de- 
nied that  my  version  of  the  accident  was 
correct.  When  I  returned  to  Tokyo  after  the 
war  I  looked  up  the  newspaper  accounts  to  see 
if  the  War  Office  had  given  out  anything  on  the 
matter,  and  in  the  "Japan  Advertiser  "  I  found 
the  following:  —  "The  following  report  was 
officially  given  out  by  the  War  Office :  Ten  men 
and  an  officer  were  killed  in  an  accident  at 
Tsingtau  to-day." 

To  be  sure,  it  was  an  accident  that  killed  the 
men,  whether  eleven  or  forty-one,  but  will  the 
War  Office  deny  that  the  men  met  their  death 
through  carelessness?  There  were  several  other 
such  accidents  at  Tsingtau  to  the  Japanese 

114 


SANITATION  AND  DISCIPLINE 

army,  but  there  were  no  casualties  reported  in 
the  British  camp  after  the  surrender,  and  no 
one  could  find  a  British  soldier  away  from  his 
barracks  unless  on  picket  duty  along  the  near- 
by roads.  Days  afterwards  there  was  that 
same  discipline  about  the  British  barracks. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

OBSERVATIONS 

To  an  Occidental,  the  most  conspicuous  thing 
in  the  surrender  of  Tsingtau  was  the  total  ab- 
sence of  the  British  flag  during  the  change  of 
government.  Though  British  soldiers  were 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  the  Japanese  in  the 
trenches,  and  even  though  Japanese  statesmen 
maintained  that  Great  Britain  had  invited 
them  into  the  war,  this  great  opportunity  in 
China,  offered  to  Japan,  appeared  to  require 
no  credit  to  Great  Britain  or  to  the  British 
flag. 

With  the  exception  of  the  British  Red  Cross 
camps  in  Kiaochow,  and  the  British  cruiser 
Triumph,  the  sight  of  the  Cross  of  St.  George 
was  totally  lacking  from  the  Far  Eastern  phase 
of  the  European  war.  Great  Britain  had  been 
silenced  by  her  obligations  to  her  ally.  General 
Barnardiston,  leader  of  the  British  expedi- 
tionary force  into  Kiaochow,  maintained  sepa- 
rate staff  headquarters  from  that  of  the  Japa- 

116 


OBSERVATIONS 

nese  commander,  but  always  he  was  under  the 
orders  of  General  Kamio. 

The  siege  of  Tsingtau  marked  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  warfare  that  an  army  from  a 
nation  of  the  white  race  had  imited  with  and 
under  the  leadership  of  a  nation  of  the  yellow 
race.  While  Great  Britain  appears  now  from 
various  quarters  to  have  suffered  somewhat  in 
placing  her  leadership  in  the  hands  of  Japan, 
the  future  portends  similar  bonds  between  Ja- 
pan and  other  nations.  Recently  even  Gov- 
ernor-General Meyer- Waldeck  has  expressed 
his  approval  of  a  German  alliance  with  Japan, 
while  Petrograd  has  been  clamoring  for  sev- 
eral months  for  a  similar  alliance. 

Undoubtedly  the  courtesy  and  humanitarian 
spirit  displayed  to  the  enemy  by  the  Japanese 
during  their  war  operations  in  Kiaochow  have 
won  the  hearts  of  every  German.  While  her 
traders  feel  keenly  the  loss  of  Kiaochow,  there 
is  not  that  bitter  feeling  displayed  between  the 
two  nations,  such  as  Great  Britain  and  Ger- 
many have  felt  in  the  past,  and  no  doubt  will 
continue  to  hold  toward  each  other  in  the  fu- 
ture. German  residents  in  Japan  throughout 

117 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

the  war  were  allowed  to  continue  in  business 
and  were  given  free  access  to  everything  with- 
out hindrance  and  with  only  the  usual  sus- 
picion that  confronts  every  foreigner  in  Japan. 
This  was  the  spirit  of  Japan  in  the  siege  of 
Tsingtau. 

In  fact  from  an  Oriental  standpoint  the  siege 
of  Tsingtau  will  always  stand  out  as  remark- 
ably free  from  hatred.  During  the  operations, 
Japanese  officers  sent  many  messages  into  the 
Tsingtau  garrison,  wishing  their  German  friends 
and  former  tutors  luck  and  safety  during  the 
siege.  The  Japanese  officers  seemed  always 
courteous.  They  placed  courtesy  foremost,  in- 
stead of  indulging  in  recrimination  such  as  usu- 
ally goes  on  between  the  Germans  and  British 
officers  and  troops.  General  Kamio  and  his  of- 
ficers did  not  desire  to  humiliate  the  defeated 
German  officers.  The  messages  that  were  in- 
terchanged during  the  siege  and  afterwards 
were  couched  in  the  most  courteous  language, 
nor  did  Governor-General  Waldeck  and  his 
stafiF  officers  lose  their  swords  after  the  final 
surrender. 

At  Kurume,  and  the  other  little  hamlets  in 
118 


OBSERVATIONS 

Japan,  where  the  German  prisoners  were 
quartered  after  the  war,  every  convenience 
and  f acihty  and  practical  freedom  for  prisoners 
were  given  the  men  by  the  Japanese.  Their 
favorite  brand  of  cigarettes,  their  magazines 
and  newspapers,  —  anything  they  wanted  was 
theirs  for  the  asking.  During  day  hours  they 
were  allowed  to  roam  around  town  streets  for 
exercise,  go  on  shopping  tours  and  the  like,  and 
only  when  some  German  soldiers  took  advan- 
tage of  the  freedom  given  them  by  the  Japa- 
nese by  escaping,  did  the  Nippon  Empire  put 
a  more  stringent  watch  upon  the  prisoners. 

But  the  feeling  between  the  Germans  and 
the  British  after  the  surrender  of  Tsingtau  —  I 
could  not  help  noticing  it,  for  always  I  was 
taken  for  a  British  subject  when  around  the 
German  camps.  The  morning  of  the  surrender, 
as  I  rode  into  the  Tsingtau  forts,  German  sol- 
diers stood  along  the  casemate  walls  hooting 
and  hissing  me.  Stones  were  thrown  at  my 
horse  and  vile  epithets  hurled  at  me,  and  one 
German  soldier  especially  seemed  goaded  by 
my  presence.  Taking  olBf  his  hat  he  shouted  at 
me  in  a  bawling  voice:   "Three  cheers  for 

119 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Transvaal.  Yes,  and  here  is  one  of  the  Boers 
who  was  there." 

And  then  one  German,  in  a  mimicking  Eng- 
lish brogue,  shouted  to  some  passing  British 
troops,  "Well,  chaps,  where  will  we  see  you  in 
London.?" 

"Standing  outside  your  cell  in  the  Tower  of 
London,"  proudly  retorted  one  of  the  British- 
ers. 

Always  was  it  this  pin-pricking  of  each  other, 
this  antagonizing,  and  only  the  presence  of 
Japanese  ojfficers  among  the  British  group 
seemed  to  check  the  desire  of  the  German  and 
British  soldiers  to  get  at  one  another's  throats. 

And  even  into  the  one  or  two  German  provi- 
sion stores  at  Tsingtau  that  were  open  after  the 
surrender  was  the  feeling  of  hatred  between 
British  and  German  carried.  At  the  Sietas 
Plambeck  store  I  found  British  and  Japanese 
soldiers  one  day  making  purchases  of  various 
sorts.  One  British  soldier  was  cursing  in  an 
undertone  at  the  price  of  one  yen  he  had  paid 
for  a  can  of  pears,  while  a  Japanese  soldier 
was  just  receiving  the  same  goods  for  half  the 
price. 

120 


OBSERVATIONS 

In  Japan's  treatment  of  Germany  and  her 
subjects  both  England  and  Germany  had  in 
the  siege  of  Tsingtau  a  fine  object  lesson  of  the 
excellent  spirit  of  their  Japanese  brother. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

JAPAN  AND  AMERICA:   PEACE  OR  WAR? 

Practically  every  discussion  of  the  rela- 
tions between  Japan  and  the  United  States  is 
based  on  a  wrong  assumption.  It  is  assumed 
that  the  only  points  at  issue  between  the  two 
countries  are  involved  in  the  California  land 
law  and  the  immigration  question. 

If  these  were  satisfactorily  settled,  we  are 
told  by  some,  all  friction  would  disappear  and 
the  two  countries,  in  their  amicable  relations, 
might  set  a  good  example  to  a  warring  world. 
If  they  are  not  settled,  we  are  told  with  equal 
insistence,  the  United  States  may  expect  war 
with  Japan. 

Unfortunately  our  relations  with  Japan  are 
not  so  simple.  Japan's  destinies  are  not  bound 
up  in  the  California  question.  She  may  be 
humiliated,  but  cannot  be  harmed  by  all  the 
laws  the  legislators  of  California  or  any  other 
State  put  on  the  statute  books. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  domination  of  the 
122 


JAPAN  AND  AMERICA 

Pacific  and  of  China  are  projects  toward  which 
her  statesmen  have  long  worked,  and  toward 
which  they  have  made  progress. 

The  United  States,  with  strong  bases  in  the 
Pacific,  and  with  a  long  record  of  sincere  friend- 
ship for  China,  stands  in  the  way  of  Japan's 
ambitions.  With  Germany  eliminated  from 
the  Pacific,  with  Russia  ready  and  eager  for  a 
partition  of  China,  with  England  silenced  by 
her  obligations  to  her  Japanese  ally,  Japan 
might  at  once  become  the  autocrat  of  the  Pa- 
cific and  the  dominant  power  in  China,  were 
it  not  for  the  United  States. 

This  is  the  real  issue  between  the  two  coun- 
tries. If  there  is  ever  a  war  between  the  two 
countries,  and  that  appears  doubtful,  it  will  be 
because  of  Japan's  ambitions,  though  legisla- 
tion such  as  the  California  land  law  may  serve 
as  a  useful  pretext. 

But  this  talk  of  the  so-called  "yellow  peril," 
following  the  passage  of  the  California  land 
law,  which  first  started  the  agitation  in  the 
United  States  of  war  with  Japan,  reminds  one 
of  the  witchcraft  scare  in  the  New  England 
States  in  the  pioneer  days  of  America.    I  be- 

123 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

lieve  that  the  danger  of  war  with  Japan  lies 
more  in  the  bark  of  the  agitators  than  in  the 
question  itself. 

We  have  seen  placed  on  the  statute  books  of 
Canada  and  Australia  legislation  which,  as  a 
barrier  to  the  Japanese,  is  far  more  stringent 
than  any  acts  passed  by  our  Pacific  Coast 
States.  But  has  the  reader  heard  any  danger- 
ous controversy  arising  between  Japanese  and 
British  diplomats  over  the  subject,  or  has 
there  been  any  talk  of  Great  Britain  and  Japan 
going  to  war  because  of  such  legislation? 

No;  because  Great  Britain  has  recognized 
Japan  by  its  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance.  It  is 
recognition  from  the  Powers  that  Japan  pri- 
marily wants  —  not  emigration.  The  Japanese 
Government  knows  that  the  "all  in  all"  ques- 
tion of  its  future  is  not  bound  up  in  the  emi- 
gration of  its  citizens  to  the  United  States, 
there  to  take  up  their  life  residence,  to  rear 
their  families  and  to  become  American  citizens. 
But  it  does  know  that  in  the  heterogeneous 
condition  of  the  Far  East  it  must  solidify  its 
colonies  if  it  does  not  intend  to  see  them  rise  in 
revolt  and  break  away  from  the  present  Gov- 

124 


JAPAN  AND  AMERICA 

ernment.  Emigration  to  America,  Canada, 
or  Australia  will  not  bring  about  this  desired 
condition  for  the  Japanese  Government,  but 
emigration  into  her  own  colonies  will. 

Until  twenty  years  ago  the  Japanese  Empire 
consisted  of  one  people  and  peace  reigned  su- 
preme. Since  then  the  Empire  has  acquired 
Formosa,  Manchuria,  the  Liao-tung  Peninsula, 
and  Korea,  and  with  the  additional  territory 
has  come  much  turmoil  in  the  colonial  posses- 
sions from  the  contact  of  the  Japanese  with  the 
natives.  It  has  been  a  diflBcult  question  for  the 
Japanese  Government  to  solve,  how  best  to 
link  its  added  territory  to  the  main  empire;  and 
the  only  practical  solution  of  the  matter  has 
been  emigration,  sending  its  citizens  from  the 
main  islands  into  Formosa  and  Korea,  there  to 
establish  themselves  in  business  and  intermarry 
with  the  natives.  In  this  way  the  foreigners 
would  amalgamate  in  time  with  the  Japanese. 

But  when  it  came  to  the  emigration  of  its 
citizens,  there  was  always  the  United  States 
offering  more  opportunity  than  the  Japanese 
Government  could  offer,  and  the  natural  trend 
was  toward  America. 

125 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Since  the  first  outbreak  of  the  Cahfornia 
question,  the  Japanese  Government  has  real- 
ized its  mistake,  and  is  now  bending  all  efforts 
to  make  its  possessions  in  China  and  about  the 
Yellow  Sea  attractive  enough  to  draw  citizens 
of  Japan  into  Japanese  possessions  rather  than 
to  America. 

At  present  the  Government  has  been  meet- 
ing with  much  opposition  in  its  immigration 
plans,  for  the  Koreans  as  well  as  the  natives  of 
Formosa  have  a  bitter  hatred  for  the  Japanese 
and  trouble  is  met  with  once  the  peoples  in- 
termingle. With  China  still  much  of  an  enigma, 
and  with  its  dissolution  as  a  nation  seemingly 
close  at  hand,  much  depends  upon  Japan's 
ability  to  solve  her  emigration  question  if 
she  wishes  successfully  to  accompUsh  her 
continental  expansion  in  Asia  and  in  the  Pa- 
cific. ' 

But  during  the  present  century,  while  Japa- 
nese emigration  has  been  going  on,  and  the 
Japanese  war  scare  has  been  making  the 
rounds  of  America,  Japan  has  advanced,  from 
being  regarded  by  Europe  as  on  the  same  level 
with  China,  to  being  a  first-class  Power,  allied 

126 


JAPAN  AND  AMERICA 

with    Great   Britain,    and   consulted   by   all 
nations  in  matters  affecting  the  Far  East. 

To  the  Japanese  the  California  land  law  ap- 
pears to  be  a  refusal  to  recognize  them  as  a 
first-class  nation,  because  our  Government  has 
provided  nothing  to  offset  that  opinion.  Great 
Britain,  however,  while  she,  too,  has  been  en- 
acting California  legislation  in  her  colonies 
against  the  Japanese,  has  shown  that  she  har- 
bors nothing  against  them  as  a  nation  by  sign- 
ing the  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance. 

Every  foreigner  who  resides  in  Japan  soon 
comes  to  learn  that  the  Japanese  are  super- 
sensitive. Failure  to  show  little  courtesies, 
which  the  foreigner  would  pass  by  with  hardly 
a  notice,  strikes  deep  into  the  heart  of  the 
Oriental.  For  example,  on  September  8, 1914, 
in  Yokohama,  a  Japanese  killed  his  friend 
while  passing  him  in  front  of  the  Yokohama 
Law  Court,  simply  because  the  latter  did  not 
salute  him  with  "  ohayo  "  (good-morning) .  The 
accused  man  was  perfectly  sober  at  the  time 
of  his  act,  but  his  sensitiveness  would  not  per- 
mit his  passing  by  his  friend's  lack  of  courtesy 
without  some  notice  of  the  fact. 

1«7 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

And  so  it  is  with  America's  Japanese  prob- 
lem. We  have  struck  deep  into  the  heart  of  the 
Japanese  by  seemingly  refusing  to  recognize 
them.  They  will  remember  the  action,  which 
to  them  appears  as  an  insult,  imtil  America  — 
not  Japan  —  does  something  to  wash  out  the 
ill-feeling  naturally  resulting. 

"I  come  now  to  the  last  important  point  de- 
manding attention,"  writes  Count  Okuma, 
aged  Japanese  statesman,  in  his  recent  book, 
"Fifty  Years  of  New  Japan."  "I  mean  our 
aspiration  to  be  recognized  by  the  world  as  a 
great  nation.  There  is  nothing  strange  in  the 
demand  that  our  people  should  be  accorded 
the  treatment  due  to  their  greatness  as  a 
Power,  not  merely  in  the  Orient,  but  in  the 
whole  world." 

With  reference  to  the  California  question  he 
says:  "I  am  well  aware  that  behind  this  anti- 
Japanese  sentiment  there  exist  various  circum- 
stances which  deserve  consideration.  However, 
in  so  far  as  our  people  are  disliked  because  they 
are  Asiatics,  there  is  nothing  reasonable  or  log- 
ical in  their  hostile  feeling.  To  reason  against 
and  to  remove  these  prejudices  and  misconcep- 

128 


JAPAN  AND  AMERICA 

tions  is  a  mutual  duty  devolving  as  much  on 
our  people  as  on  the  Western  nations  con- 
cerned." 

It  is  probably  true  that  there  are  many 
Americans  who  dislike  the  Japanese  because 
they  are  Asiatics,  but  these  are  in  the  minority; 
their  bark  carries  with  it  no  bite.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  broad-minded  men  of  both  Japan 
and  the  United  States  realize  that,  underlying 
the  California  legislation  against  the  Japanese, 
there  are  conditions  which  are  proper  for  Cali- 
fornia to  take  note  of.  The  work  has  been 
poorly  done. 

The  average  American  and  Japanese  public 
have  a  misconception  of  the  California  legisla- 
tion. It  has  a  larger  significance  than  just  the 
question  of  admitting  the  Japanese.  If  the 
United  States  should  admit  the  Japanese  to 
immigration  to  this  country,  what  point  could 
you  bring  out  in  the  Japanese  as  possible  citi- 
zens that  you  could  not  find  in  the  Chinese  or 
in  the  Hindu? 

In  fact,  the  California  action  is  not  aimed 
directly  at  the  Japanese,  though  the  latter  may 
believe  the  opposite  and  feel  the  sting  of  it 

129 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

more  sharply  because  their  name  is  carried  in 
the  acts  of  legislation.  No,  the  action  is  an 
indirect  barrier  to  the  immigration  of  any  Asi- 
atics to  America.  True  it  is,  there  is  already  a 
federal  regulation  against  the  immigration  of 
the  Chinese  into  this  country,  but  it  is  mainly 
because  of  economic  reasons,  as  is  also  the  bar 
against  the  Japanese.  Nevertheless,  a  great 
friendship  exists  between  the  United  States 
and  China,  the  same  as  there  should  exist  be- 
tween Japan  and  this  country,  and  will  exist  as 
soon  as  America  recognizes  Japan  satisfactorily 
as  a  Power. 

The  wholesale  immigration  of  the  Japanese 
into  this  country,  however,  would  not  bring 
this  condition  about.  With  the  Japanese,  as 
Count  Okmna  points  out  in  his  book,  "unmor- 
ally  developed"  in  business  and  in  other  ways, 
the  immigration  of  the  Japanese  into  this  coun- 
try would  only  result  in  the  country  being 
thrown  into  an  economic  disorder  which  in  all 
probability  would  bring  out  serious  trouble 
between  the  two  nations. 

Since  Japan's  stimulation  of  emigration  to 
her  own  colonies  of  late,  the  Japanese  war  scare 

130 


JAPAN  AND  AMERICA 

in  America  has  been  gradually  subsiding,  but 
jingo  press  artists  from  time  to  time  continue 
to  heap  coal  on  the  dying  fire  by  spreading 
broadcast  the  untruthful  report  that  the  Japa- 
nese are  landing  troops  on  the  shores  of  Turtle 
Bay  in  Southern  California  or  in  some  other 
section  of  the  Americas. 

In  speaking  of  the  improved  situation  exist- 
ing between  the  United  States  and  Japan, 
Coimt  Okuma  said  in  April,  this  year:  — 

Practically  all  of  the  friction  that  has  arisen  in 
America  has  grown  out  of  one  phase  or  another  of 
the  immigration  question.  That  situation  is  im- 
proving somewhat  and  is  one  that  I  hope  time  will 
solve  satisfactorily  to  both  countries.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion which  from  its  nature  requires  time  for  solution. 

The  United  States  has  had  other  such  questions 
with  other  nations,  which  have  always  been  solved 
by  time,  and  so  I  hope  for  a  similar  solution  of  this 
question.  There  are  now  about  eighty  thousand 
Japanese  in  the  United  States  —  that  is,  in  the 
mainland  territory  —  and  as  many,  or  perhaps  a 
few  more,  in  Hawaii. 

This  is  a  smaller  number  than  were  in  the  United 
States  at  the  time  the  so-called  gentlemen's  agree- 
ment was  concluded.  Since  that  time  more  Japa- 
nese have  come  home  from  the  United  States  than 
have  gone  there  and  the  number  in  your  country 
has  been  steadily  reduced. 

131 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

This  reduction  has  been  slow,  it  is  true,  owing  to 
the  fact  that  a  good  many  Japanese  in  America  get 
married  and  the  birth  of  children  tends  to  keep  up 
the  total  number  of  Japanese  there.  But  the  influx 
of  Japanese  has  been  practically  stopped  and  there 
is  a  gradual  but  steady  reduction  going  on. 

There  is  no  real  ground  for  apprehension,  no 
real  cause  for  alarm  in  the  relations  existing 
between  the  United  States  and  Japan.  I  do  not 
believe  that  Japan  has,  or  ever  had,  any  desire 
of  warring  with  the  United  States.  For  eco- 
nomic reasons  alone  this  appears  to  be  true. 
Japan  has  not  as  yet  recovered  from  her  Rus- 
sian war.  Not  one  cent  of  the  debt  incurred  in 
waging  that  conflict  has  yet  been  paid,  and 
since  that  time  the  war  operations  at  Kiaochow 
have  indebted  the  Government  still  further. 
Further  acquisition  of  territory  necessitating 
large  expenditures  to  the  Government  in  its 
upkeep,  both  in  Manchuria  and  Korea  as  well 
as  in  Kiaochow,  have  stripped  the  Japanese 
Treasury. 

During  that  period  the  United  States  has 
been  Japan's  best  customer.  We  have  pur- 
chased raw  silk  and  tea  to  the  extent  annually 
of  more  than  sixty  million  dollars,  and  in  so 

13S 


JAPAN  AND  AMERICA 

doing  have  kept  many  thousands  of  people  in 
Japan  in  employment  in  this  trade.  If  war  was 
to  be  declared  between  the  two  countries,  this 
trade  would  come  to  a  standstill,  the  Govern- 
ment would  lose  this  income.  Great  Britain 
could  not  be  used  as  the  market  for  the  once 
American  tea-trade,  for  England  has  culti- 
vated a  taste  for  the  better  class  of  teas,  either 
Indian  or  Chinese.  Nor  would  England  take 
up  the  importation  of  Japanese  raw  silk 
dropped  by  America,  because  they  have  found 
the  Chinese  silk  more  stable. 

But  the  real  question  existing  between  Japaa 
and  the  United  States,  is  the  attitude  of  the 
two  Governments  toward  China.  On  this  point 
rests  the  only  true  apprehension  for  fear  of 
a  war.  Count  Okuma,  and  other  Japanese 
statesmen,  know  that  in  the  California  immi- 
gration question  there  are  good  points  to  be 
stated  for  both  sides,  and  they  realize  that  time 
alone  can  settle  the  matter  in  the  peaceful  way 
they  are  desirous  that  it  shall  be  settled.  In  the 
question  of  China,  however,  the  situation  is 
more  serious. 

The  United  States  is  known  among  the 
133 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Powers  as  the  true  friend  of  China.  It  is  a 
friendship  not  founded  on  petty  jealousies  or 
with  any  ulterior  or  base  motive.  It  is  a  friend- 
ship always  backed  by  friendly  action  of  aid 
and  guidance.  Against  the  United  States  in 
this  respect  have  stood  out  Russia  and  Ger- 
many, eager  for  China's  partition,  France,  and 
Japan,  with  a  dream  of  controlling  China  all  for 
herself.  And  that  is  where  the  crux  of  Ameri- 
can-Japanese relations  lies  to-day.  It  is  the 
situation  pending  in  Peking,  as  to  whether  or 
not  the  United  States  will  attempt  to  interfere 
or  block  Japan's  designs  upon  China,  that  lends 
the  biggest  support  to  this  war  talk  between 
Japan  and  America. 

In  Japan  this  year,  when  her  position  toward 
China  took  on  an  ultimatum  in  the  form  of  a 
series  of  demands,  there  arose  among  her  prom- 
inent thinkers  a  cry,  in  answer  to  the  protests 
of  prominent  Americans  and  Britishers,  that 
Japan  in  these  demands  was  only  trying  to 
formulate  a  Monroe  Doctrine  for  Asia.  From 
this  there  came  forward  a  group  of  Americans 
who  advocated  that  the  United  States  should 
not  interfere  in  any  way  with  the  Japanese 

134 


JAPAN  AND  AMERICA 

demands  upon  China  lest  it  should  prove  dan- 
gerous to  our  own  Monroe  Doctrine. 

"  If  Japan's  only  idea  is  to  build  up  an  Asiatic 
Monroe  Doctrine,"  said  Dr.  Shailer  Mathews, 
Dean  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  in  March, 
after  an  eight  weeks'  American  peace  propa- 
ganda in  Japan,  "the  American  people  can 
hardly  fail  to  sympathize  with  her,  particularly 
as  we  recall  her  need  for  territory  in  which  to 
expand." 

It  is  my  belief  that  the  Japanese  demands 
upon  China  have  nothing  of  Monroe  doc- 
trinism in  them.  They  are  simply  aggressive 
measures  forced  upon  China  by  Japan  in  an 
opportunity  to  realize  her  ambition  for  the 
domination  of  China,  while  the  other  Powers 
warring  in  Europe  have  their  hands  tied  and 
cannot  interfere. 

The  United  States  should  not  interfere,  say 
many  eminent  Americans.  Japan  is  only  for- 
mulating a  Monroe  Doctrine  in  Asia. 

But  is  she.^  Has  our  own  Monroe  Doctrine 
any  imperialistic  clauses  like  the  following 
demands  that  Japan  submitted  to  China  .^ 


135 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

China  to  purchase  from  Japan  at  least  half  of 
the  arms  and  ammunition  required  by  the  whole 
country. 

In  regard  to  South  Manchuria  and  East  Mon- 
golia, the  railroads  in  this  region  to  be  exclusively 
under  Japanese  control  for  ninety-nine  years,  and 
no  citizens  or  subjects  of  other  countries  to  be 
allowed  to  build  railroads  or  to  make  loans  in  this 
region  without  the  consent  of  Japan. 

Japanese  capital  to  be  employed  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Province  of  Fukien. 

In  the  Yangtze  basin,  Japan  to  have  absolutely 
exclusive  mining  rights,  and  to  be  allowed  to  con- 
struct and  control  the  main  trunk  lines  from  Cen- 
tral China  to  the  coast  and  to  the  south. 

Reducing  China  to  a  mere  vassalage,  threat- 
ening her  very  integrity,  barring  all  foreigners 
but  Japan,  and  closing  the  open  door  —  all 
this  Japan  seeks  in  her  demands  upon  China, 
and  yet  some  Americans  turn  around  and  say, 
*' Japan  is  following  our  Monroe  Doctrine  in 
Asia."  I  fail  to  see  the  similarity  between 
Japan's  policy  and  that  doctrine  laid  down  by 
our  own  President  Monroe. 

But  what  will  be  the  result  if  the  Japanese 
demands  upon  China  prove  successful?  Mil- 
lions of  Chinese,  chaiBng  under  the  yoke  of 
Japan,  —  a  yoke  which  they  never  wanted, 

136 


JAPAN  AND  AMERICA 

which  they  disHke,  which  language  and  even 
rehgion  separates  them  from.  Sections  of 
China  will  become  a  second  Formosa,  a  second 
Korea,  with  Japanese  armed  guards  standing 
about  to  keep  the  country  from  revolt.  Will 
such  conditions  go  on  forever  .^^  I  ask  you,  did 
they  in  Poland,  did  they  in  Alsace-Lorraine,  in 
Trieste?  All  these  last-named  were  founda- 
tion causes  for  the  European  war,  and  do  you, 
as  a  peace-lover,  want  to  see  another  Poland 
question  and  its  like  creep  into  Asia  —  later 
to  take  form  in  a  giant  holocaust  in  which  the 
nations  of  the  yellow  race  as  well  as  nations  of 
the  white  will  participate? 

That  is  the  serious  side  of  the  American- 
Japanese  relationship  question.  Will  it  become 
necessary  for  the  United  States  to  interfere  in 
the  Japanese  demands? 

Luckily  there  are  other  Powers,  such  as 
Great  Britain  and  France,  who  are  interested 
in  the  Japanese  demands,  and  both  will  have 
some  restraining  influence  upon  the  Nippon 
Government  in  the  final  negotiations  at  Pe- 
king. Undoubtedly  Japan  will  see  that  any 
demands  tending  toward  shutting  the  open 

137 


THE  FALL   OF  TSINGTAU 

door  in  China  any  further  than  has  already 
been  done  in  Manchuria,  will  bring  a  strong 
protest  from  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States.  In  such  a  case,  if  any  friction  should  be 
developed  between  the  two  Powers  and  Japan 
over  the  question,  it  would  probably  tend  toward 
a  serious  break  between  the  United  States 
and  Japan,  once  the  opportunity  offered  itself. 

Germany's  interference,  together  with  that 
of  France  and  Russia  in  the  Treaty  of  Shim- 
onoseki,  whereby  Japan  was  deprived  of  her 
spoils  of  the  Chinese  War,  —  the  Liao-tung 
Peninsula,  —  is  proof  of  this.  Though  Ger- 
many and  Japan  were  in  cordial  relations  at 
the  time,  though  Germany  tutored  and  brought 
the  Japanese  military  establishment  to  its  pres- 
ent first-class  standing,  Japan  never  forgot  the 
Shimonoseki  incident.  Later,  in  August,  1914, 
Japan  took  the  opportunity  to  avenge  herself 
upon  Germany. 

But  the  United  States  has  made  clear  to 
Japan,  as  well  as  to  the  other  Powers,  her  pol- 
icy toward  China.  Since  Japan  recognized  that 
policy,  her  own  policy  toward  China  has  been 
constantly  undergoing  shifts  of  position  and 

138 


JAPAN  AND  AMERICA 

policy,  until  to-day,  the  American  policy  ap- 
pears as  a  check  to  her  desires.  This  injection 
of  a  disturbing  element  in  the  question  of 
China  by  Japan  causes  both  nations  to  become 
uneasy,  and  each  suspects  the  other  of  bellicose 
designs  against  it  as  a  result. 

However,  our  attitude  toward  Japan  is  not 
bellicose.  America  has  been  somewhat  awak- 
ened by  the  catastrophe  that  has  befallen 
Europe,  and  she  is  naturally  uneasy  with  the 
thought  that  some  day,  too,  she  may  be  in- 
volved in  some  such  diplomatic  planning  as 
Europe  witnessed  in  July  and  August  which 
will  turn  her  territory  into  turmoil.  The  na- 
tural result  is  to  make  military  preparations  to 
check  such  a  tendency  of  affairs.  But  the  senti- 
ment, so  necessary  in  Congress  for  taking  these 
precautions,  takes  on  such  white  heat  that 
accusations  are  frequently  made  that  Japan 
has  bellicose  designs  upon  America  and  we 
must  prepare  for  them. 

No  such  thing.  Japan  is  fully  aware  that  she 
has  not  the  money  or  a  cause  successfully  to 
wage  war  against  the  United  States.  Nor  could 
she  hope  to  gain  anything  by  so  doing. 

139 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

With  a  population  of  50,000,000  people  liv- 
ing on  a  group  of  islands  about  the  size  of  the 
State  of  Montana,  Japan  is  only  looking  for- 
ward to  her  future  when  she  attempts  to  push 
her  domains  on  to  the  continent  of  Asia.  When 
she  arose  in  1905  as  one  of  the  first-class  Pow- 
ers, she  discovered  that  Great  Britain,  Ger- 
many, Russia,  and  the  remainder  of  the  larger 
nations,  had  already  played  their  game  of  grab, 
and  the  practice  of  foreign  expansion  was 
about  at  a  standstill. 

Nevertheless,  realizing  the  unstable  position 
of  China,  Japan  stood  guard  at  the  door  of 
Asia,  and  at  the  first  sign  of  trouble  from  the 
nations  within  —  Britain's  war  against  Ger- 
many —  she  found  an  opportunity  to  get  her 
much-desired  Asiatic  spoils  through  the  Anglo- 
Japanese  Alliance. 

As  to  the  California  immigration  question  — 
time  alone  will  settle  it  satisfactorily  both  for 
Japan  and  the  United  States.  But  in  Japan's 
ambitions  in  China  and  in  the  American  atti- 
tude toward  the  Celestial  Kingdom,  there 
alone  lies  the  danger  of  war  between  Japan 
and  America. 


CHAPTER  XV 

BUSHIDO   VS,    GREAT   BRITAIN 

There  is  in  Japan  the  lofty  moral  code  of 
'*bushido"  or  "the  way  of  the  warrior."  The 
cherry  blossom  being,  in  the  estimation  of  the 
Japanese,  the  purest  and  noblest  among  flow- 
ers, so  the  bushi,  or  warrior,  is  the  purest  and 
noblest  among  men.  Wherever  you  go  in 
Japan  you  hear  prominent  officials  of  the  Mi- 
kado Empire  refer  to  the  bushido,  this  spirit, 
which,  as  they  say,  has  played  such  an  impor- 
tant part  in  the  education,  guidance,  and  train- 
ing not  only  of  the  soldier  and  other  individuals 
of  Japan,  but  of  the  nation  as  well. 

To  have  lived  in  Japan,  to  have  worked 
among  her  people,  bivouacked  with  her  army, 
and  to  have  resided  among  them  in  peace  and 
in  war,  leads  one  to  believe  that  there  is  very 
little  in  this  far-famed  bushido  spirit  of  the 
Japanese. 

As  I  sat  one  day  on  the  beach  of  Lauschan, 
the  base  of  supplies  for  the  Japanese  army  in 

141 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Shantung,  and  watched  hundreds  of  Chinese 
cooHes  ranging  from  young  boys  of  fourteen 
years  old  to  men  of  forty  and  fifty  years  of 
age,  filing  to  and  fro,  carrying  large,  heavy 
crates  on  their  bare  backs,  and  with  Japanese 
soldiers  snickering  and  laughing  as  they  beat 
them  over  the  head  and  on  the  legs  with  thick 
bamboo  sticks,  I  commenced  to  wonder  what 
there  was  in  this  so-called  spirit  of  bushido,  — 
this  "way  of  the  warrior,"  which  is  heralded  all 
over  the  world  as  the  fine,  courteous,  and 
manly  spirit  of  the  Japanese  that  has  been  so 
great  a  factor  in  bringing  them  into  the  lime- 
light the  last  twenty  years. 

My  residence  in  Japan,  preceding  that  inci- 
dent, had  shown  me  that  bushido  certainly 
was  not  in  daily  practice  about  the  cities  and 
hamlets  of  Dai  Nippon;  at  least  my  eyes  had 
proved  it  otherwise.  I  wondered  why  it  was 
that  eminent  writers  of  America  and  Great  Bri- 
tain had  heralded  this  bushido  spirit  of  the 
Japanese  with  so  much  praise  and  gratitude. 
Surely,  the  chivalry  of  the  West,  the  code  of 
the  Occidental,  is  far  more  praiseworthy  than 
that  of  the  spirit  of  bushido,  the  Japanese  code 

142 


«  g  .S 

£  ^  h 

1  «  Si 

03  —  OJ 

5  B  =« 

cS  «  t- 

a  C  aj 

2  -2  5 

+3  .-S  be 

M  S  s 

.2  s  o 

oc  a  "3 


BUSHIDO  vs.  GREAT  BRITAIN 

of  ethics.  The  Occidental,  at  least,  considers  it 
a  duty  to  respect  women,  and  his  Government 
does  not  foster  the  concubinage  system,  nor 
does  it  have  in  its  Government  a  cabinet 
known  among  the  people  as  "  the  virtuous  cab- 
inet," such  as  the  present  Okuma  Cabinet  of 
Japan,  so  designated  because  preceding  cabi- 
nets have  been  morally  rotten.  The  chivalry  of 
the  West  does  not  recognize  a  father  who  dissi- 
pates his  wealth,  and  then  turns  his  daughters 
out  upon  the  streets  to  sell  their  chastity  to  pay 
his  debts;  but  all  this  is  allowable  in  Japan, 
this  land  of  the  bushido  spirit. 

And  as  I  sat  on  the  beach  at  Lauschan  and 
watched  the  Chinese  coolies  working  as  hard 
and  as  fast  as  their  strength  would  permit,  in 
deadly  fear  of  the  soldiers  standing  about,  I 
wondered  why  it  was  that  Japanese  soldiers 
stood  along  the  line  and  beat  them  with  sticks. 
I  concluded,  after  an  hour's  observation  of  the 
sight,  that  it  was  just  the  tactics  of  a  bully; 
the  stronger  showing  his  strength  to  the  weaker 
brother  in  order  that  the  latter  would  more 
readily  understand  who  was  boss. 

Throughout  my  days  with  the  Japanese 
143 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

army  in  Shantung  I  found  this  constant  nag- 
ging of  the  Chinese  native  by  the  soldiers  of 
bushido.  Sometimes  it  took  the  form  of  several 
Japanese  pouncing  upon  a  Chinese  street  ped- 
dler and  robbing  him  of  his  wares;  other  times 
it  was  some  soldier  entering  the  house  of  a 
native,  taking  some  piece  of  beautifully  carved 
furniture,  to  be  carted  later  into  camp  and 
utilized  as  firewood. 

And  then  there  was  Japan's  violation  of 
China's  neutrality,  her  occupation  of  western 
Shantung,  and  the  ultimatum  of  "twenty-one 
demands"  upon  China,  an  uncalled-for  pro- 
cedure. 

There  is  one  nation,  however,  that  is  going 
^4^*i  to  meet  this  spirit  of  bushido  within  the  next 
ten  or  fifteen  years,  and  that  nation  is  none 
other  than  Great  Britain.  Already  Britain's 
commercial  interests  are  choking  under  the 
yoke  of  the  Anglo-Japanese  alliance,  and  with 
the  Japanese  even  talking  commercial  invasion 
of  the  Yangtze  valley,  a  British  sphere  of 
influence  in  China,  it  is  wondered  just  how 
many  years  it  will  take  for  the  friction  that 
is  now  developing  between  the  Japanese  and 

144 


BUSHIDO  vs.  GREAT  BRITAIN 

British  interests  to  lead  to  something  more 
serious. 

Japan  does  not  always  apply  a  lofty  moral 
code  to  her  business.  A  few  months'  residence 
in  the  islands  will  prove  this  point  satisfacto- 
rily. But  from  a  Government  standpoint,  no 
nation  will  feel  the  Japanese  business  methods 
so  quickly  as  will  Great  Britain.  In  fact  the 
Foreign  Office  at  London  is  probably  a  bit 
wiser  on  Japanese  methods  now  than  it  was 
in  1911,  when  it  signed  the  Anglo-Japanese 
Agreement.  Perhaps  this  in  part  can  account 
for  the  delayal  of  the  publication  by  the 
Government  in  London  of  the  book  giving  all 
the  cablegrams  and  official  messages  that 
passed  between  Tokyo  and  London  immedi- 
ately before  the  Japanese  participation  in  the 
European  war.  The  Foreign  Office  under  Sir 
Edward  Grey  has  seen  that  copies  containing 
the  official  messages  that  were  exchanged  be- 
tween Belgium,  France,  Russia,  and  Turkey 
have  been  forwarded  to  every  city  of  the  world, 
outside  of  the  German  possessions,  that  boasts 
of  a  newspaper  office.  I  have  wondered  just 
why  a  Government  account,  officially  stating 

145 


THE  FALL  OP  TSINGTAU 

the  reasons  for  Japan's  participation  in  the 
European  war  under  the  British  AUiance,  has 
never  been  pubHshed.  Certainly  Great  Britain 
cannot  say  that  Japan's  joining  the  war  was 
not  as  important  as  that  of  Turkey,  or  any 
other  country. 

There  were  many  hitches  and  much  wrang- 
ling between  British  ojQBcials  and  Japanese  oflB- 
cials  that  first  week  in  August  when  Japan, 
while  Great  Britain  was  still  aroused  from  the 
shock  of  Germany's  violation  of  Belgium's  neu- 
trality, asked  London  that  she  be  allowed  to 
drive  Germany  from  Kiaochow,  under  the 
Anglo-Japanese  Alliance.  The  Government 
business  of  Great  Britain  was  more  than 
crowded  then  with  the  mobilization  and  final 
preparations  for  her  troops'  invasion  of  conti- 
nental territory.  And  it  was  while  Great  Brit- 
ain's hands  were  practically  tied  at  home  with 
the  worries  and  rush  of  events  in  Europe  that 
Japanese  diplomacy  succeeded  in  putting 
through  a  move  —  her  dream  for  years  —  an 
important  domination  of  China.  Undoubtedly 
Great  Britain  regrets  it  all,  certainly  her  com- 
mercial interests  do. 

146 


BUSHIDO  vs,  GREAT  BRITAIN 

"Oh,  the  Anglo- Japanese  Alliance;  it's  done 
everything  for  Japan  and  nothing  for  Great 
Britain,"  was  the  way  one  prominent  British 
exporter  in  Yokohama  put  the  matter  to  me. 
True,  from  a  governmental  standpoint  it  was 
the  pretext  used  by  Japan  for  driving  Germany 
from  Asia.  But  it  is  a  question  whether  in  the 
long  run  it  has  not  been  detrimental  to  British 
interests. 

Until  the  present  time  British  interests  have 
dominated  in  the  Far  East.  With  her  vast  ter- 
ritory of  India  in  Asia,  the  most  important 
colonial  possession  she  has.  Great  Britain 
wielded  a  leadership  in  the  Far  East  that  was 
felt  from  Persia  to  Japan.  In  banking,  her 
Hongkong  and  Shanghai  banking  corporation, 
supported  by  the  Chartered  Bank,  became  the 
leading  financial  institution  in  the  Far  East. 
Though  Japanese  banks  have  been  rising  rap- 
idly to  importance,  the  British  still  control  the 
large  business  interests  in  the  Orient. 

In  shipping  and  trade,  Great  Britain  is  still  in 
the  front  rank  in  Asia,  but  with  the  stupendous 
growth  of  Japanese  commerce  under  able 
Government  subsidy  it  is  not  known  how  long 

147 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

this  condition  will  remain.  Japan's  nearness  to 
Asiatic  markets  and  her  cheap  wage  scale  will 
play  an  important  part  in  the  increase  of  her 
trade  and  commerce,  and  with  Germany  now 
eliminated  from  Asia,  it  is  expected  Japan  will 
make  a  strong  bid  for  a  part  of  that  trade. 

With  the  Tokyo  Government  in  possession 
of  Kiaochow,  Japan  will  have  a  foothold  in 
China  on  which  to  base  her  trade  propaganda 
on  a  more  extensive  scale.  Possibly  she  may 
make  of  it  a  second  Manchuria  for  her  trades- 
people. While  her  diplomats  shout  the  open- 
door  policy  to  the  world,  the  Government 
furnishes  rebates  to  its  shippers,  and  slowly 
Japanese  trade  will  come  to  the  front  as  it 
has  in  Manchuria. 

And  it  is  these  not  too  honest  methods  of  the 
Japanese  that  are  raising  the  ire  of  the  British. 
Only  last  July  the  Shanghai  branch  of  the 
China  Association,  composed  of  the  most 
prominent  British  subjects  in  China,  called  a 
meeting  to  discuss  the  trade  methods  of 
Britain's  ally. 

"Gentlemen,"  read  the  chairman's  report  at 
the  meeting,  "if  the  Japanese  competition  is 

148 


BUSHIDO  vs.  GREAT  BRITAIN 

strenuous  because  of  improvements  of  their 
yarn  and  in  packing,  etc.,  we  as  Britishers 
ought  to  be  able  to  stand  the  strain,  and  I 
have  every  confidence  that  we  can  do  so;  but 
if  Japanese  competition  is  to  be  reinforced 
by  preferential  rates  of  duty  and  preferential 
freights,  we  must  protest  and  protest  all  the 
time  and  continue  protesting  until  we  can  ob- 
tain a  fair  field  and  an  equal  opportunity  for 
all." 

In  the  one  example  of  the  sale  of  cotton 
goods  to  China,  Japan  during  the  last  five 
years  has  cut  into  the  trade  of  both  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States.  In  1909,  the 
British  sold  to  China  10,690,000  pieces,  the 
United  States  3,850,000  pieces,  and  Japan 
1,390,000  pieces  of  cotton  goods.  In  1913, 
Great  Britain  still  led  the  field  with  the  sale  of 
11,700,000  pieces;  the  Japanese  came  next  with 
5,710,000,  while  the  sales  from  the  United 
States  had  dropped  to  2,280,000. 

But  the  Japanese  trader  is  a  seeker  after  new 
fields.  He  is  not  content  to  develop  his  trade 
in  his  own  sphere  of  influence,  but  will  even 
wage  war  in  the  zones  of  other  Powers.  Just 

149 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

before  the  opening  of  hostilities  in  Europe  in 
July,  Count  Okuma,  in  an  address  in  Tokyo, 
stated  that  he  thought  the  time  had  come  for 
the  extension  of  the  Anglo-Japanese  Alliance 
to  an  economic  alliance  as  well.  He  thought 
that  Great  Britain  and  Japan  should  cooperate 
in  extending  their  trade  throughout  China  and 
Asia,  and  only  a  few  days  later,  the  Premier's 
emissary  to  China,  Baron  Shibusawa,  one  of 
the  most  successful  business  men  in  Japan,  said 
in  an  interview  in  Shanghai:  "For  the  develop- 
ment of  a  country  there  are  necessary  three 
economic  factors:  resources,  capital,  and  the 
knowledge  and  experience  of  men.  China  has 
many  resources  to  be  developed;  the  British 
have  the  capital,  and  the  Japanese  the  knowl- 
edge^and  experience.  There  should  be  an  eco- 
nomic cooperation." 

"I  recognize  the  importance  of  the  British 
influence  in  the  Yangtze  valley,"  said  Baron 
Shibusawa.  "Each  of  the  allies  should,  how- 
ever, concede  something  to  the  other,  for  if  not, 
a  conflict  of  interest  will  take  place." 

The  Yangtze  valley,  with  Shanghai  at  its 
mouth  and  Hankow,  six  hundred  miles  farther 

150 


BUSHIDO  vs,  GREAT  BRITAIN 

inland,  has  long  been  recognized  as  the  British 
sphere  of  influence  in  China.  It  is  one  of  the 
richest  valleys  in  the  Celestial  Kingdom,  and  it 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  British  tradespeople 
in  China  look  with  any  degree  of  delight  upon 
Japan's  aims  to  utilize  her  alliance  with  Great 
Britain  as  a  factor  in  building  up  her  com- 
merce. 

On  these  accounts  friction  is  developing  in 
the  Far  East  between  the  British  subject  and 
the  Japanese,  and  it  is  wondered  whether 
Japan  may  not  come  out  as  leader  in  the  Far 
East  as  a  result  of  the  European  struggle. 

It  appears  that  the  most  influential  factor 
that  this  question  rests  on  is  the  military  and 
naval  strength  of  the  two  nations.  Great 
Britain,  at  the  close  of  the  great  war,  will  find 
thousands  of  her  best-trained  military  men 
killed  on  the  battlefields  of  Europe.  In  numeri- 
cal strength  she  will  probably  be  on  a  par  with 
Japan,  but  the  latter  will  have  an  advantage  in 
her  homogeneous  force.  Japan  has  no  Indian 
regiments,  no  Canadian  or  Australian  contin- 
gent to  swell  the  strength  of  her  army.  Her 
soldiers  are  nearly  all  veterans  of  the  Russian 

151 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

war  and  her  latest  recruits  have  tasted  war  in 
the  siege  of  Tsingtau.  Her  spirit  is  unijBed,  and 
it  is  doubtful  whether  the  mixed  regiments  that 
Great  Britain  will  have  are  superior  to  the 
fighting  force  of  Japan.  Of  the  navies  of  the 
two  nations  Great  Britain  leads. 

But  events  as  they  are  happening  in  the  Far 
East  point  to  the  end  of  the  Anglo-Japanese 
Alliance  upon  the  expiration  of  the  present 
treaty  in  1921.  Other  nations  are  clamoring  to 
take  the  place  of  Great  Britain  in  such  alliance 
with  Japan,  not  because  they  are  pro-Asiatic 
in  spirit,  but  because  they  want  to  weaken 
the  power  of  Great  Britain  in  order  that  they 
may  further  their  own  cause  in  the  Far  East. 
Japan,  it  is  believed,  is  only  too  glad  to 
accept  some  such  proposal,  for  bushido,  the 
way  of  the  warrior,  is  not  finding  a  welcome 
among  British  subjects.  Is  the  time  coming 
when  Japan's  late  enemies,  Russia  and  Ger- 
many, will  be  in  league  with  the  land  of  the 
Rising  Sun,  aiding  them  to  drive  Great  Bri- 
tain from  the  Far  East? 


CHAPTER  XVI 

WHAT  GERMANY   DID   IN  KIAOCHOW 

There  have  been  few  colonial  ventures,  such 
as  Kiaochow,  which  have  been  blessed  with 
such  a  fairy  godmother  as  the  Berlin  Reichstag. 
During  the  seventeen  years  of  occupation  of 
the  protectorate  by  Germany,  no  less  than 
$60,000,000  was  showered  on  this  Far  Eastern 
naval  base.  Most  of  this  expenditure  went  into 
docks,  harbor  improvements.  Government 
buildings,  schools,  macadam  roads,  and  the 
like,  and  though  Germany  has  since  been 
forced  to  surrender  all  this  magnificent  work, 
the  Tsingtau  of  1914  will  clearly  stand  out  in 
the  memory  of  its  visitors  and  Far  Easterners 
as  the  finest,  the  prettiest,  most  modern  and 
sanitary  city  in  the  Orient. 

Germany  at  Kiaochow  possessed  two  assets 
unequaled  in  the  whole  of  Asia  —  one  in  the 
Bay  of  Kiaochow,  and  the  opportunity  it  of- 
fered for  a  fine  harbor  near  its  entrance,  and 
the  other  the  climate  of  which  the  whole  of 

153 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

the  Shantung  Peninsula  was  able  to  boast. 
Perhaps  in  no  other  section  of  Asia  is  the  cli- 
mate so  suited  to  the  foreigner  as  that  of  Kiao- 
chow,  for,  situated  in  about  thirty-six  degrees 
north  latitude,  which  is  about  on  an  equality 
with  the  southern  Azores  and  Gibraltar,  it  is 
noted  in  China  for  the  mild  temperature  that 
prevails  in  the  district  practically  throughout 
the  year. 

It  did  not  take  the  Berlin  Government  long 
to  utilize  these  two  points  in  making  Tsingtau, 
the  capital  of  their  new  colony,  the  finest  in  the 
Orient.  Scarcely  before  the  terms  of  the  Kiao- 
chow  Convention  had  been  drawn  up,  trans- 
ports and  freighters  were  on  their  way  from 
German  ports  to  Shantung  with  lumber  and 
other  materials  for  setting  up  a  model  little 
European  city.  Along  with  them  came  all  the 
best  that  Germany  could  give  in  geologists, 
engineers,  and  railroad  constructors.  In  the 
short  period  of  twelve  months,  the  hills  in  the 
rear  of  Tsingtau  were  echoing  with  the  chugs 
from  the  steam  dredges  working  away  on  the 
bottom  of  the  bay,  and  with  the  clatter  of 
hammers  from  the  fast-rising  buildings  about. 

154 


GERMANY  IN  KIAOCHOW 

For  months  and  months  the  Germans  la- 
bored hard  to  develop  this  harbor  in  Kiaochow 
Bay.  The  channel  was  at  length  cleaned  out  to 
permit  the  safe  passage  of  the  largest  ship 
afloat,  and  the  dredging  work  was  then  ex- 
tended toward  the  construction  of  an  outer 
and  inner  harbor  at  Tsingtau.  At  length  the 
work  was  completed  at  an  expense  exceeding 
$7,000,000.  Under  the  eyes  of  Prince  Henry, 
the  Kaiser's  brother,  and  commander  of  the 
German  squadron  that  rode  at  anchor  in  the 
Bay  of  Kiaochow,  this  German  naval  base  had 
become  a  reality. 

The  completion  of  the  harbor  work  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  erection  of  great  granite  piers  and 
moles,  so  arranged  that  goods  could  be  trans- 
ferred directly  from  the  railroad  which  was 
being  proposed  for  construction  into  the  hin- 
terland. Military  warehouses,  foundries,  ma- 
chine shops,  and  electric  power  plant  were  then 
built,  together  with  a  floating  dry  dock  capable 
of  lifting  the  biggest  dreadnought  on  the  seas. 
Kiaochow  was  then  ready  to  offer  the  best 
shipping  facilities  of  any  port  on  the  China 
coast. 

155  \ 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

With  the  final  platting  of  the  city  of  Tsing- 
tau  and  with  many  of  the  governmental  build- 
ings that  were  to  shelter  the  Government  oflS- 
eials  well  under  construction,  Berlin  turned 
attention  to  other  propositions  for  developing 
the  new  colony.  The  attention  of  German  cap- 
italists was  called  to  the  wealthy  province  of 
Shantung,  and  on  June  1,  1899,  land  opera- 
tions at  Kiaochow  were  stimulated  by  the 
formation  in  Berlin  of  the  Shantung  Railway 
Company. 

On  the  same  day  this  syndicate  obtained  the 
license  for  mining  in  Shantung,  whereby  the 
harmony  necessary  for  the  economic  develop- 
ment of  the  protectorate  was  assured.  The 
company,  which  was  incorporated  with  a  capi- 
tal of  54,000,000  marks,  at  once  began  the 
work  of  constructing  a  railroad  from  Tsingtau 
to  Tsinan-fu,  the  capital  of  the  province  of 
Shantung,  via  Wei-hsien.  The  grading  for  the 
roadbed  of  the  railroad  began  on  September 
23, 1899,  at  Tsingtau  and  Kiaochow,  when  His 
Royal  Highness,  Prince  Henry,  turned  the  first 
sod.  The  road,  which  was  to  be  a  single  track, 
standard-gauge  line,  was  rushed  to  completion 

156 


GERMANY  IN  KIAOCHOW 

with  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  laborers 
employed,  and  by  April  8,  1901,  the  first  sec- 
tion of  seventy-four  kilometers  to  the  town  of 
Kiaochow  was  opened  to  traflSc.  Only  sixteen 
months  later  the  whole  line  from  Tsingtau  to 
Tsinan-f u,  as  well  as  a  branch  line  from  Chang- 
tien  to  the  mining  district  of  Poshan,  was 
opened  for  freight  and  passenger  traffic. 

With  Shantung  now  open  to  traffic  and  set- 
tlement, trade  suddenly  began  springing  up 
between  the  native  and  the  German  represen- 
tatives. So  pleased  seemed  the  Reichstag  over 
this  turn  of  events  that  more  coin  was  heaped 
upon  the  Kiaochow  venture,  and  it  was  de- 
cided to  cement  a  strong  bond  of  friendship 
between  their  representatives  and  the  Chinese. 
In  this  one  instance  the  German  Government 
invited  the  Chinese  customs  officials  to  func- 
tion at  Tsingtau  under  much  the  same  rights 
and  privileges  as  a  German  custom-house. 

"The  principal  object  of  this  arrangement," 
said  Mr.  Ohlmer,  for  long  the  Commissioner  of 
Customs  at  Tsingtau,  "was  the  creation  and 
promotion  of  trade  and  commerce  between  the 
city  and  the  Chinese  hinterland.   The  results 

157 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

conclusively  proved  the  wisdom  of  this  novel 
arrangement.  Under  it,  trade  developed  be- 
yond expectation,  and  Tsingtau,  the  former 
dilapidated  fishing  village,  grew  into  a  hand- 
some city  with  a  flourishing  mercantile  commu- 
nity, and  a  considerable  number  of  manufac- 
turing establishments.  Its  success  emboldened 
the  Government  to  agree  to  go  a  step  farther 
and  to  arrange  for  the  limitation  of  the  free 
area,  which  formerly  comprised  the  whole  dis- 
trict, to  the  harbor,  on  much  the  same  lines 
as  at  the  German  free  ports,  Hamburg  and 
Bremen." 

"The  chief  advantage  of  this  step,"  said  Mr. 
Ohlmer,  "lay  in  the  removal  of  customs  con- 
trol from  the  railway  stations  to  the  free  area, 
and  the  consequent  freedom  of  goods  and  pas- 
sengers to  pass  in  and  out,  from  and  to  the 
hinterland,  without  hindrance  and  control  of 
any  kind  —  a  trajEc  simplification  from  which 
a  considerable  increase  of  trade  was  expected. 
The  expectation  was  realized,  for  the  new  ar- 
rangement inspired  confidence  and  stability 
in  the  future  of  the  port  and  in  attracting 
artisans,  traders,  and  wealthy  Chinese  firms, 

158 


GERMANY  IN  KIAOCHOW 

which  last,  hitherto  dealing  with  Chefoo,  until 
then  kept  aloof  from  the  place." 

In  this  way  did  Germany  firmly  establish 
itself  among  the  Chinese,  and  with  the  embers 
of  the  Boxer  Rebellion  fast  dying  out,  and  the 
constant  fear  of  the  Celestial  Kingdom  at  the 
rise  of  the  Russian  Government  on  its  northern 
border,  the  two  peoples  seemed  gradually  to 
come  together.  Germany  furthered  the  cause 
by  sending  to  Kiaochow  horticultural  experts 
and  scientists  to  aid  the  Chinese  in  their  work 
of  reclaiming  Shantung,  from  which  centuries 
before  had  spread  China's  religion,  culture, 
and  education. 

The  soil  of  the  German  protectorate,  consist- 
ing as  it  did  of  granite  rock  and  deposits  of  ita 
decomposition,  was  found  to  be  rich  in  potash, 
and  with  this  as  an  inducement  Germany  set 
about  to  discover  some  means  of  reforesting 
the  colony,  something  which  all  the  Powers 
had  tried  a  hand  at  in  other  sections  of  China 
with  not  much  success.  Park  and  experimental 
stations  were  platted  and  set  with  many  of  the 
Oriental  trees  and  shrubs,  as  well  as  those 
imported  from  the  fatherland,  and  under  the 

159 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

guidance  of  the  horticultural  experts  the  plants 
flourished  and  Germany  was  ready  to  carry  its 
experiments  farther  into  the  hinterland. 

But  Tsingtau,  the  chief  port  of  Kiaochow 
—  already  its  name  was  being  heard  in  the  Far 
East  and  in  Europe  as  a  city  of  opportunity  — 
in  the  first  five  years  of  its  existence  found 
the  Chinese  and  Japanese,  as  well  as  Germans 
and  Britishers,  all  flocking  to  share  in  its  trade. 
Tsingtau  had  by  now  passed  from  a  city  in  the 
making  to  a  modern  European  municipality 
with  wide  macadamized  streets,  four  and  five 
storied  business  blocks,  and  large,  roomy  stone 
residences,  each  of  which  looked  fully  capable 
of  surviving  the  ninety-nine-year  German  lease 
of  Kiaochow.  Trains  rumbled  into  its  station 
from  the  hinterland,  and  the  large  concrete 
quays  and  docks  along  its  shores  were  piled 
with  crates  containing  goods  and  articles  manu- 
factured or  raised  in  the  district,  awaiting  ship- 
ment to  the  United  States,  South  America,  or 
Europe. 

Along  the  water-front  one  found  huge,  long, 
gray  military  warehouses,  machine  shops  of  all 
kinds,  and  ship  foundries.   Along  the  dock  of 

160 


GERMANY  IN  KIAOCHOW 

the  greater  harbor  sailors  passed  to  and  fro, 
while  a  giant  drydock  anchored  just  beyond, 
in  which  was  lashed  a  sixteen-thousand-ton 
North-German  Lloyd  vessel,  gave  the  little  city 
quite  a  commercial  setting.  Chinese  sampans, 
heavily  loaded  with  crates,  glided  quietly  along 
in  the  bay,  passed  the  German  gimboats  litis 
and  Jaguar,  and  occasionally  one  would  catch 
the  deep  undertoned  oo  of  a  Japanese  freighter 
from  Nagasaki,  or  a  British  vessel  from  Shang- 
hai, as  it  signaled  its  entrance  into  the  port  to 
clear  its  goods.  While  Kiaochow  Bay  looks  deep 
and  trustworthy,  it  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  a 
great  silt-choked  expanse  of  sheltered  water 
that  Germany  has  had  to  dredge  and  make 
navigable  for  almost  its  entire  extent.  Its  har- 
bors and  docks  represent  years  of  toil  and 
great  expenditures  by  the  Reichstag;  but  the 
investments  had  proved  their  worth,  for  the 
little  colony  was  prospering  like  no  other  settle- 
ment in  the  Far  East. 

By  1906,  Tsingtau  had  witnessed  the  com- 
pletion of  its  magnificent  Government  build- 
ings whose  Imperial  crested  gables  seemed  to 
flare  forth  from  the  hillside  to  greet  the  passen- 

161 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

gers  of  incoming  vessels.  It  had  likewise  built  a 
fine  naval  hospital,  schools  for  the  Chinese  as 
well  as  for  the  younger  generation  from  the 
fatherland,  and  in  fact  all  sides,  commercial, 
economic,  educational,  and  the  religious  side 
of  life  were  all  finding  play-room  in  this  Far 
Eastern  city. 

But  it  was  not  until  after  the  close  of  the 
Russian-Japanese  War  that  Tsingtau  became 
known  as  the  "Brighton"  of  the  Far  East. 
In  view  of  the  wonderful  climate  of  this  little 
city,  Germany  was  not  long  in  looking  around 
to  make  it  not  only  attractive  enough  to  induce 
settlers  from  the  fatherland  to  take  up  their 
residence  there,  but  also  to  stimulate  the  traffic 
of  the  tourist  with  his  wealth  to  the  port.  On 
the  east  beach  of  the  outer  bay,  just  a  mile  and 
a  half  from  Tsingtau,  German  engineers  soon 
discovered  a  delightfid  stretch  of  sand,  more 
than  a  mile  in  length  and  facing  out  on  the 
Yellow  Sea.  At  once  the  making  of  Tsingtau 
the  summer  resort  of  the  Orient  entered  into 
their  minds,  and  but  a  year  afterwards  the 
surrounding  country  had  been  parked,  bath- 
houses erected,  the  commodious  Strand  Hotel 

162 


CUllLST   CHURCH 

One  of  the  few  buildings  in  Tsingtau  to  go  unscathed  through  the  siege.    A 
German  Lutheran  church  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city  was  all  but  demolished 


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GENERAL  BARNARDISTON  AND  THE  BRITISH  EXPEDITIONARY 
FORCE  PASSING  IN  REVIEW  BEFORE  GENERAL  KAMIO 

On  the  entry  of  the  allied  troops  into  Tsingtau,  November  16,  1914.  In  the 
background  is  the  Prince  Heinrich  Hotel,  utilized  by  the  Germans  during  the 
siege  as  an  emergency  hospital.  The  red  cross  painted  on  its  roof  preserved 
it  from  the  bombs  of  Japanese  aviators 


GERMANY  IN  KIAOCHOW 

built,  with  accommodations  for  three  hundred 
guests,  a  race-track  course  laid  out  near  by; 
in  fact  all  of  the  advantages  of  some  of  the 
"water-ways"  in  the  fatherland  were  planted 
in  the  little  colony.  Closely  following  this  came 
the  wealthy  German  residents  of  Tsingtau,  who 
built  large  villas,  with  beautiful  gardens  sur- 
rounding, on  the  heights,  overlooking  the 
beach.  The  city  at  once  gained  reputation,  not 
only  for  great  natural  beauty,  but  for  archi- 
tectural beauty  as  well. 

Gradually  the  news  spread  about  in  Far 
Eastern  ports  that  Tsingtau  was  the  healthiest 
city  in  Asia  and  was  a  delightful  summer  re- 
sort, with  the  result  that  the  months  of  July, 
August,  and  September  found  American,  Brit- 
ish, German,  French,  and  Chinese  residents  of 
Hongkong,  Shanghai,  Yokohama,  and  other 
Eastern  ports  all  away  from  their  sweltering 
climates  and  lounging  comfortably  about  in 
the  innumerable  beautiful  little  villas  of  Tsing- 
tau in  its  cool  and  delightful  temperature. 
Each  year  saw  the  prestige  of  the  colony  in  this 
respect  rise,  and  soon  the  accommodations  that 
the  city  could  oflfer  to  guests  were  overtaxed. 

163 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

More  hotels  were  built,  all  on  German  lines, 
and  modern  in  every  detail,  and  soon  the  city 
began  to  take  on  a  cosmopolitan  appearance. 

Along  in  the  path  of  the  summer  resorter  and 
tourist  at  Tsingtau  came  the  Hindu,  Chinese, 
and  Japanese  merchants  with  their  bazaars,  so 
familiar  in  Oriental  ports,  and  gradually  the 
city  spread  out  to  the  top  of  the  near-by  rugged 
heights.  Under  German  rule  European  ways 
had  dominated  Oriental  customs  in  Tsingtau, 
and  the  port  had  become  different  from  any 
other  harboring  place  in  the  Far  East.  There 
was  that  same  clatter  of  the  bargaining  native, 
the  same  rattle  of  the  passing  ricksha,  but  the 
beautiful  paved  and  shaded  streets,  the  purely 
foreign  aspect  of  the  city,  with  Germans,  Brit- 
ishers, and  Americans  passing  down  the  streets, 
at  once  put  the  foreigner  "at  home"  with  the 
freedom  and  feeling  that  is  rarely  found  by  the 
newcomer  in  other  cities  of  Asia.  Ricksha  coo- 
lies stood  in  an  orderly  row  at  a  distance  from 
the  steamship  gangplank  as  you  passed  down 
it,  and  there  was  none  of  that  accustomed  trip- 
ping and  wrangling  over  passengers  that  is 
generally  found  in  the  Orient.  The  militaristic 

164 


GERMANY  IN  KIAOCHOW 

sway  of  Germany  in  Asia  had  evidently  been 
felt  by  even  the  Chinese  cooHe. 

For  the  Chinese  native  in  Tsingtau,  German 
officials  had  platted  and  fostered  a  model  little 
hamlet  called  Tapatau,  which  is  in  itself  a  part 
of  Tsingtau,  but  reserved  for  the  business  and 
residential  purposes  of  the  many  Chinese  who 
were  living  in  the  district  at  the  time  of  the 
occupation.  Here  the  same  well-laid-out  and 
paved  streets  are  found.  The  Chinese  homes 
are  much  more  orderly  kept  than  one  sees  iii 
trips  through  other  sections  of  the  country. 
The  population  of  Tapatau  is  about  30,000. 

The  population  of  Kiaochow  in  1913  was 
estimated  to  be  191,984,  an  increase  of  fifteen 
per  cent  over  167,224  given  out  in  1910. 
According  to  the  census  taken  in  Tsingtau  in 
July,  1913,  that  city  had  a  population  of 
60,484.  In  1910  the  census  showed  40,264. 
The  classification  is  as  follows:  — 

Classificaiion  1910  1913 

European  and  American 1,621  2,069 

Military 2,275  2,401 

Chinese 36,180  55,672 

Japanese 167  316 

Other  Asiatics 21       26 

Total 40,264  60,484 

165 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

The  nationalities  represented  among  the 
Europeans  and  Americans  in  the  city  during 
the  last  census  were:  German,  1855,  Russian, 
61,  British,  51,  Americans,  40,  French,  15, 
other,  47. 

Of  the  economic  and  commercial  develop- 
ment of  Kiaochow,  much  must  be  said  of  the 
mining  that  was  carried  on  in  the  district  dur- 
ing the  sixteen  years  of  German  occupation. 
It  was  due  probably  to  the  eminent  German 
geologist.  Dr.  Richtoflfen,  that  the  attention  of 
the  Government  oiBScials  was  called  to  the  min- 
erals of  Shantung.  After  investigation  it  was 
estimated  that  the  total  amount  of  coal  in  the 
province  was  10,000,000,000  tons.  The  organi- 
zation of  the  Shantung  Mining  Company  was 
the  result,  with  a  capital  of  12,000,000  marks. 
On  October  1,  1901,  work  was  started  on  the 
Fangtze  mine  and  the  amount  of  coal  dug  out 
yearly  increased  until  it  reached  200,000  tons 
in  1911.  In  1903,  the  company  extended  its 
operations  to  the  Hungchang  mine  in  Poshang, 
and  in  1911,  with  a  working  force  of  2500 
Chinese,  375,000  tons  of  coal  were  extracted 
in  the  year.    In  spite  of  these  resources  the 

166 


GERMANY  IN  KIAOCHOW 

company  operated  at  a  loss  of  more  than 
$10,000,000  and  in  view  of  the  situation  the 
company  was  annexed  to  the  Shantung  Rail- 
way Company  on  February  13,  1912.  Besides 
coal,  Shantung  Province  is  noted  for  the  pro- 
duction of  gold,  silver,  iron,  copper,  and  lead. 
Petroleum  has  also  been  discovered  in  Kiao- 
chow,  since  the  Japanese  occupation. 

Other  industries,  which  were  fostered  among 
the  Chinese  by  the  Germans,  were  the  straw- 
braid  trade,  the  production  of  American  cotton 
and  tobacco,  the  cultivation  of  silk,  and  the 
manufacture  of  pongee  silk  and  hand-made 
lace.  Poultry-raising  has  also  been  another  big 
industry  in  Kiaochow,  and  in  1910,  1,821,183 
dozens  of  eggs  were  exported  to  Russia  and 
America  from  Tsingtau.  The  production  of 
eggs  in  the  province  eventually  led  to  the 
establishment  of  albumen  factories,  and  in 
1911  this  production  reached  500,000  pounds. 

In  horticultural  lines  the  Chinese  in  Shan- 
tung owe  much  to  Germany,  for  it  was  her 
officials  who  first  introduced  scientific  farming 
into  that  province.  Large  orchards  of  apple 
trees,  pears,  pomegranates,  chestnuts,  peaches 

167 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

set  in  rows  and  appearing  not  unlike  the  well- 
known  fruit  orchards  that  exist  in  Hood  River 
and  in  other  sections  of  the  western  United 
States,  were  not  an  uncommon  sight  in  the 
hinterland  of  Kiaochow  during  German  occu- 
pation. 

But  just  how  Germany,  with  the  natural 
advantage  held  in  Kiaochow,  routed  the  trade 
of  other  foreign  countries,  and  especially  the 
Japanese,  from  the  province  of  Shantung,  can 
probably  be  gleaned  from  a  study  of  her  ship- 
ping and  export  figures.  In  the  year  1903,  the 
total  number  of  ships  that  entered  Tsingtau 
was  277  and  their  aggregate  tonnage  reached 
285,015  tons.  In  exactly  ten  years  this  number 
had  almost  trebled  with  the  entrance  of  799 
vessels  to  the  port  with  a  total  tonnage  of 
1,201,388.  In  1903,  foreign  imports  into  Kiao- 
chow amounted  to  5,130,000  taels,  with  Chinese 
imports  of  6,140,000  taels  additional.  In  1913, 
this  had  been  increased  to  14,700,000  and 
16,620,000  taels  respectively.  For  the  same 
period  exports  jumped  from  230,000  taels  to 
9,150,000  taels,  exclusive  of  Chinese  exports, 
which  were  15,840,000  taels  additional.  Pea- 

168 


GERMANY  IN  KIAOCHOW 

nuts,  which  are  raised  on  an  extensive  scale 
throughout  Kiaochow,  furnished  one  of  the 
main  items  in  the  exports  from  Tsingtau, 
150,000  tons  of  these  being  exported  to  Europe 
in  1913. 

In  its  sanitation,  its  modern  sewers,  its  well- 
kept  streets  and  houses  —  something  that  the 
foreigner  finds  the  lack  of  in  other  sections  of 
the  Far  East  —  in  this  respect  Germany  has 
shown  that  it  can  be  done,  that  civilization 
can  invade  the  sleepy  and  dreamy  Orient  and 
be  successful.  Other  Powers  have  attempted 
many  of  the  same  things  in  their  concessions 
in  the  Far  East  that  Germany  did  in  China, 
but  none  have  really  brought  the  Occidental 
and  his  ways  to  Asia,  as  the  Germans  did  in 
Kiaochow. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

JAPAN  AND   HER  GAME   IN   CHINA 

The  European  war  furnished  Japan  with  a 
rare  opportunity,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  for 
the  encouragement  of  her  designs  upon  China, 
which  the  Island  Empire  has  cherished  for  the 
last  ten  years.  Japanese  statesmen  saw  in  the 
hostilities  in  Europe  during  the  first  week  of 
August  "the  chance  of  a  lifetime"  in  Asia,  for 
with  the  attention  of  all  the  Powers  turned 
toward  the  Atlantic  it  left  Japan  to  play  her 
diplomacy  as  she  saw  fit.  And  Japanese  states- 
men were  not  slow  in  accepting  the  chance. 
Count  Okuma,  Premier  of  Japan,  succeeded  in 
throwing  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain 
oflF  their  guard  by  his  messages  of  peace,  and 
Japan  "harbors  no  territorial  aggrandize- 
ment," and  the  like.  And  so  Japan  was  able  to 
continue  her  game  unhindered  and  unnoticed 
imtil  events  had  gone  too  far  for  checking. 

It  may  be  a  surprise  to  many  to  learn  that 
the  demands  recently  forced  upon  China  by 

170 


JAPAN  AND  HER  GAME  IN  CHINA 

Japan,  which  took  on  a  serious  warlike  form 
early  last  May,  were  not  of  late  making;  that 
is,  something  that  originated  in  the  minds 
at  Tokyo  after  the  surrender  of  Tsingtau.  In 
fact  the  Japanese  demands  upon  China,  while 
being  held  in  mind  for  years,  received  no  defi- 
nite form  until  the  first  week  in  August.  Japan 
at  that  time  had  received  no  answer  from 
Great  Britain  as  to  whether  her  invitation  to 
drive  Germany  from  Asia  would  be  accepted. 
But  England,  Germany,  France,  and  Russia, 
all  Powers  interested  in  Asia,  were  at  the  time 
so  busy,  Japan  seemingly  could  not  act  slowly, 
and  so  she  decided  to  put  in  force  her  policy  of 
the  domination  of  China,  before  the  other 
Powers  should  have  a  free  hand  to  act. 

The  demands  upon  China,  which  were  pub- 
lished in  one  of  the  vernacular  papers  in  Osaka, 
at  once  threw  China  into  great  excitement. 
By  the  exposure  of  her  cards,  Japan  was  forced 
to  revamp  her  policy  in  order  to  quiet  the  sus- 
picions of  Peking.  Instead  of  playing  her  de- 
mands upon  China  first,  Japan  decided  to 
work  the  cards  somewhat  under  the  veil  of  her 
war  operations,  and  thus  originated  the  Japa- 

171 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

nese  violation  of  China's  neutrality  by  her 
army  a  few  weeks  later. 

The  first  demands  made  upon  Peking  by  the 
new  Japanese  Ambassador,  Mr.  Hioki,  were 
six  in  number,  according  to  which  Japan  under- 
took "to  secure  eflfectively  the  independence  of 
the  Republic  of  China."  In  the  demands  as  pub- 
lished throughout  the  China  press  at  the  time, 
but  which  Government  suppression  kept  from 
all  but  one  Japanese  newspaper,  Japan  agreed 
"to  take  steps  to  meet  the  emergency  should 
any  third  nation  want  to  disturb  the  peace  of 
the  Republic."  For  Japan's  "kindness"  in  this 
matter  China  was  to  agree  "not  to  hinder  the 
movements  of  the  Imperial  Japanese  Govern- 
ment, but  to  compensate  it  for  its  services,  and 
allow  it  to  use  any  strategic  points  necessary 
for  military  service."  In  other  words,  Japan 
hoped  to  dominate  China  by  first  getting  her 
army  into  the  Celestial  Kingdom  without  sus- 
picion, and  then,  with  a  gun  pointed  at  the 
head  of  China,  would  declare:  "Here,  you  give 
us  what  we  want  or  we'll  blow  your  head  oflF." 

But  China,  and  the  Far  East  outside  of 
Japan,  look  with  distrust  upon  Japan's  ac- 

172 


JAPAN  AND  HER  GAME  IN  CHINA 

tions,  a  suspicion  seemingly  well  foimded  on 
policies  that  Japanese  statesmen  have  com- 
mitted their  Government  to  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  And  so  Premier  Okuma  veiled 
the  policy  of  Japan  in  a  message  to  the  Ameri- 
can public  which,  as  printed  in  "The  Inde- 
pendent" of  August  24,  stated:  "As  Premier  of 
Japan,  I  have  stated,  and  I  now  again  state  to 
the  people  of  America  and  of  the  world,  that 
Japan  has  no  ulterior  motive,  no  desire  to 
secure  more  territory,  no  thought  of  depriving 
China  or  other  peoples  of  anything  which  they 
possess." 

Then  began  the  Japanese  army  movements 
in  their  strangle-hold  method  upon  China. 
They  landed  their  troops  at  Lungkow,  marched 
into  the  hinterland,  and  instead  of  working 
toward  Tsingtau,  the  Japanese  army  turned  its 
back  on  the  German  garrison  and  marched 
westward,  thus  violating  the  neutrality  of 
China.  Though  the  latter  protested  vehe- 
mently, Japan  went  ahead  and  marched  her 
troops  still  farther  westward,  out  of  the  war 
zone,  to  Tsinan-f u,  the  capital  of  Shantung. 

The  Far  East  now  knew  what  the  future  held 
173 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

in  store  for  China.  But  China,  in  deadly  fear  of 
a  revolutionary  uprising  against  the  invader, 
and  with  the  one  object  of  saving  if  possible  her 
people  of  Shantung  from  the  horrors  of  war, 
declared  a  war  zone.  To  this  zone  Japan  paid 
not  the  least  attention,  but  marched  her  troops 
about  as  if  Shantung  was  in  reality  Japanese 
territory.  It  seized  the  Shantung  railroad,  a 
Chino-German  private  concern,  the  valuable 
coal  mines  belonging  to  the  company,  and 
committed  many  acts  of  violence  and  force 
upon  the  once  peaceful  Shantung  communities 
which  aroused  the  ire  of  not  only  the  Chinese, 
but  the  British,  their  allies,  as  well. 

But  all  this  was  without  effect  on  Japan. 
She  continued  to  act  with  high-handedness. 
With  the  final  transfer  of  the  German  gov- 
ernment, Japan  placed  military  rule  over 
Kiaochow  with  General  Kamio  as  its  Gov- 
ernor-General. 

Then  began  the  unfolding  of  Japan's  poli- 
cies, which,  unless  altered,  will  bar  her  in  the 
future  from  the  trusted  round  table  of  nations. 
When  the  question  of  the  Tsingtau  Maritime 
Customs  Office  arose,  Japan  objected  to  the 

174 


JAPAN  AND  HER  GAME  IN  CHINA 

policy  of  China  in  the  appointment  of  customs 
officers,  a  poHcy  which  all  the  Treaty  Powers 
guaranteed,  and  instead  insisted  that  the  offi- 
cials be  appointed  only  from  the  Japanese 
Customs  Department.  It  will  be  noted  that 
by  the  peace  protocol  of  the  Boxer  Rebellion 
the  customs  revenue  of  China  was  assigned  to 
the  indemnity.  Kiaochow,  even  under  German 
occupation,  had  never  ceased  to  be  Chinese 
territory,  and  as  such,  all  its  customs  revenue 
went  to  the  Peking  Treasury. 

For  weeks  the  matter  was  argued,  China 
attempting  to  oflfset  any  desires  of  Japan  for 
the  impairment  of  her  sovereign  rights.  But 
though  China  agreed  to  permit  eight  members 
of  the  Imperial  Japanese  Customs  Department 
to  functionate  with  the  Chinese  customs  serv- 
ice at  Tsingtau,  Japan  would  have  none  of  it, 
and  finally  forced  the  point  by  placing  all  Jap- 
anese officers  in  the  Tsingtau  Customs  Office. 

Next  she  permitted  only  Japanese  vessels  to 
call  at  the  Kiaochow  port.  Great  Britain  pro- 
tested, and  Japan  replied  with  one  of  her  char- 
acteristic notes  that  the  Bay  of  Kiaochow  was 
still  mined  and  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to 

175 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

permit  shipping  to  go  on  at  the  port.  The  de- 
mands of  British  commerce,  however,  took  on 
a  serious  form  at  the  London  Foreign  Office, 
and  at  length  Japan  decided  to  permit  British 
vessels  to  call  at  Tsingtau.  At  this  time  of  writ- 
ing the  ships  of  other  nations  are  still  barred. 

To  understand  fully  the  actions  of  Japan 
during  the  last  ten  months,  it  is  necessary  to 
get  a  glimpse  of  the  political  situation  in  Tokyo 
during  December.  In  the  Diet  which  was  in 
session  that  month  the  strongest  party  numeri- 
cally was  the  Seiyukai.  It  was  strongly  op- 
posed to  the  Okuma  Cabinet,  and  with  that 
Cabinet  dictating  the  policy  that  Japan  was 
following,  it  was  feared  that  the  Seiyukai, 
during  the  session,  would  attempt  to  cause 
the  Cabinet's  downfall. 

The  Seiyukai  especially  were  clamoring 
against  the  weakness  of  the  foreign  policy  of 
the  Cabinet  in  permitting  Great  Britain  to 
dictate  that  Japan  would  "eventually"  restore 
Kiaochow  to  China,  and  with  the  newspapers 
supporting  them  with  bellicose  editorials 
against  the  Cabinet,  the  Government's  policy 
seemed  on  the  verge  of  failure. 

176 


r>!ril 


JAPAN  AND  HER  GAME  IN  CHINA 

The  delay  in  bringing  about  the  conclusion 
of  the  siege  of  Tsingtau,  until  three  weeks  be- 
fore the  reassembling  of  the  Diet  in  Tokyo, 
helped  in  a  small  degree  to  check  the  public 
disapproval  of  the  Cabinet,  but  not  until  De- 
cember 9,  when  Baron  Kato,  Foreign  Minisr 
ter,  before  an  audience  hissing  and  mutter- 
ing, announced  to  the  world  that  Japan  had 
never  guaranteed  to  any  nation  eventually  to 
restore  Kiaochow  to  China,  did  the  feeling 
against  the  Cabinet  subside.  I  was  present  in 
the  Diet  that  day  and  noticed  that  twice  in 
the  course  of  his  speech,  Baron  Kato  was 
forced  to  stop  to  warn  Diet  members  who  were 
uttering  aloud  insulting  remarks  about  him. 

The  statements  of  Baron  Kato  that  day  re- 
vealed the  messages  of  Premier  Okuma  to  be 
mere  diplomatic  chaflf ,  covering  selfish  national 
ambitions.  But  the  utterances  of  Baron  Kato 
in  the  Diet  were  as  much  a  surprise  to  the 
Japanese  as  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  ver- 
nacular press  of  Tokyo  came  out  the  following 
day  with  editorials  in  which  they  stated  that, 
while  Baron  Kato's  statement  was  a  complete 
revelation  to  them,  they  were  glad  to  hear  that 

177 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

the  Foreign  Office  had  not  been  committed 
to  any  weakened  poUcy  as  had  been  supposed. 
From  that  day  on  the  opposition  to  the 
Okuma  Cabinet  commenced  to  dwindle,  and 
throughout  the  next  three  months  of  cam- 
paigning the  Government  was  able  to  come  out 
victorious  in  the  elections  of  March  26  by  ap- 
pealing to  the  patriotism  of  citizens  to  support 
the  policy  of  the  Government. 

China  and  the  Far  East  in  general  were  now 
aware  that  Japan  had  practically  decided  to 
make  Shantung  a  Japanese  sphere  of  influence. 
The  Japanese  press  was  alive  with  interviews 
of  prominent  Japanese  officials  in  which  the 
future  actions  of  Japan  were  all  revealed. 

"We  must  take  it  upon  us  to  manage  and 
develop  Shantung  Province,  and  this  by  no 
other  power  than  that  of  commerce  and  in- 
dustry," said  Baron  Sakatani,  Mayor  of 
Tokyo  and  former  Minister  of  Finance.  It  will 
be  noted  in  the  above  that  it  is  not  alone  Kiao- 
chow  that  is  to  be  managed  by  Japan,  but  all 
of  Shantung. 

"That  our  country  has  come  across  such  a 
great  opportunity  is  a  consequence  of  the  war 

178 


JAPAN  AND  HER  GAME  IN  CHINA 

which  caused  the  withdrawal  of  European 
commerce  from  China,"  wrote  Mr.  Hikokichi 
Ijuin,  former  Japanese  Ambassador  to  Peking, 
in  the  December  issue  of  the  "Japan  Financial 
Monthly."  "The  opportunity  is  indeed  rare 
and  will  occur  only  once  in  a  great  while. 
Therefore  we  must  take  a  step  forward  and 
grasp  it  firmly.  And  let  us  do  so  quickly.  If  we 
incur  a  delay  here,  the  armed  contest  will  cease 
and  the  European  commercial  giants  will  turn 
to  China  with  redoubled  force.  Then  the 
mighty  opportunity  will  be  lost  forever." 

Mr.  Ijuin  apparently  does  not  think  that 
a  policy  as  outlined  by  one  of  the  Japanese 
statesmen.  Premier  Okuma  on  August  24,  as  to 
the  future  restoration  of  Kiaochow,  is  to  be 
taken  seriously.  And  then  Mr.  Shirani,  Civil 
Administrator  of  Kwantung  Peninsula,  is 
somewhat  in  touch  with  the  Government's 
hidden  policy  when,  in  December,  he  asks: 
"  Will  Kiaochow  become  an  equally  promising 
colony  for  our  people  as  Formosa  or  Man- 
churia.P"  And  then  he  discusses  the  question 
at  length  with  a  negative  answer. 

And  thus,  after  the  surrender  of  Tsingtau, 
179 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

we  see  the  Japanese  leaders  of  finance  and 
economics  all  discussing  the  question  of  Shan- 
tung and  Kiaochow  and  what  Japan  can  do 
with  it  in  the  future  to  build  up  its  empire. 

That  Japan  was  bent  upon  the  policy,  as  out- 
lined above  by  some  of  her  leading  government 
and  commercial  thinkers,  was  at  length  re- 
vealed on  January  18, 1915,  in  the  second  pre- 
sentation by  Japan  of  demands  upon  China. 
Those  who  violate  the  laws  of  man,  either 
internationally  or  socially,  generally  use  the 
cover  of  darkness  for  their  crimes,  and  so  it 
was  with  Japan  in  the  presentation,  through 
Mr.  Hioki,  the  Japanese  Ambassador  at  Pe- 
king, of  a  series  of  twenty-one  demands,  most 
preposterous  in  character. 

Japan,  in  the  presentation  of  the  demands, 
insisted  that  they  should  not  be  made  known, 
and  further  stated  that  if  China  disregarded 
the  warning  she  would  be  punished  by  much 
more  drastic  measures.  But  Japan,  instead  of 
presenting  the  demands  to  the  Minister  of  For- 
eign Aflfairs  at  Peking,  the  usual  order  of  things, 
took  extra  precautions  this  time,  lest  the  world 
should  learn  the  truth,  and  instead,  they  were 

180 


JAPAN  AND  HER  GAME  IN  CHINA 

presented  directly  to  President  Yuan  Shi-Kai. 
Late  the  same  evening  Mr.  Hioki  had  an  inter- 
view with  the  President  and  explained  in  de- 
tail the  demands. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  PASSING   OF  CHINA   AS  A  SOVEREIGN 
NATION 

In  the  history  of  nations,  there  has  never 
been  a  document  presented  to  a  sovereign 
State  by  another,  such  as  the  demands  Japan 
presented  to  China  on  January  18,  1915. 
Guiltless  of  offense  was  China,  but  Japan, 
with  no  shadow  of  excuse,  presented  to  her  a 
document  which  has  all  but  robbed  the  Celes- 
tial Kingdon  of  sovereignty.  It  was  an  event 
of  world-wide  importance,  but  so  interested 
were  the  United  States  and  the  other  Powers  in 
the  tragedies  that  were  happening  on  the  other 
side  of  the  world,  that  Japan's  death-blow  to 
China  and  the  passing  of  the  oldest  nation  in 
the  world  is  scarcely  yet  realized.. 

And  in  the  presentation  of  her  demands, 
Japan  unmasked  before  the  whole  world  to  re- 
veal herself  purely  as  a  military  nation,  bound 
by  no  honor  and  guided  simply  by  her  selfish 
ambitions.  I  state  this  as  a  fact  and  with  no 
unfriendliness  to  Japan. 

182 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

But  of  the  Japanese  ambition  to  dominate 
China:  It  is  a  desire  not  of  recent  invention, 
but  as  old  as  the  New  Japan.  For  years  Japan 
has  worked  to  reahze  this  dream.  China  has 
been  flooded  with  spies  under  the  disguise  of 
students  or  priests,  all  of  whom  have  traveled 
the  country  from  province  to  province,  noting 
the  military  conditions  and  otherwise  prepar- 
ing data  which  would  prove  beneficial  when 
once  Japan  was  ready  to  put  her  policy  in 
force.  At  Hankow,  in  the  very  heart  of  China, 
the  Tokyo  Government  erected  a  large  mili- 
tary barracks  with  the  pretext  of  protecting 
her  concessions  in  that  district,  but  with  the 
intention  of  utilizing  this  strategic  point  as  a 
base  for  her  military  operations  later,  if  the 
domination  of  China  required  military  force. 

And  let  the  reader  remember  that  the  Japan- 
ese domination  of  China  was  fully  discussed  by 
the  Powers  at  the  close  of  the  Chino-Japanese 
War  in  1895.  One  of  the  demands  made  by 
Japan  upon  China  at  the  treaty  negotiations 
conducted  at  Shimonoseki  at  the  conclusion  of 
that  war  was  the  cession  to  Japan  of  the  Liao- 
tung  Peninsula,  which  included  Port  Arthur. 

183 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

When  the  news  of  the  Japanese  treaty  de- 
mands upon  China  were  known  to  the  rest  of 
the  world,  Europe  especially  was  at  fever  heat. 
Russia  at  once  assumed  a  hostile  attitude  to- 
ward Japan  and  rushed  a  fleet  of  seventeen 
warships  to  Chefoo  Harbor,  at  the  same  time 
instructing  China  not  to  ratify  the  treaty. 
Russia  in  her  move  to  check  the  aspirations  of 
Japan  was  naturally  supported  by  her  ally, 
France,  as  well  as  Germany,  all  seeing  in  the 
Japanese  desires  the  domination  of  China.  It 
was  understood  then  that  the  Power  which 
controlled  Port  Arthur  would  control  Peking, 
and  hence  it  was  that  the  three  above-men- 
tioned Powers  presented  to  Tokyo  a  brief  com- 
munication which  stated  that,  as  the  Japanese 
position  on  the  mainland  would  "not  only  con- 
stitute a  constant  menace  to  the  capital  of 
China"  and  "jeopardize  the  permanent  peace 
of  the  Far  East,"  it  was  deemed  important  by 
these  Powers, "  in  a  spirit  of  cordial  friendship," 
to  insist  that  Japan  "renounce  the  definite 
possession  of  the  Liao-tung  Peninsula."  With 
all  the  above  military  talent  arrayed  against 
her,  there  was  only  one  move  open  to  Japan  — 

184 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

the  retrocession  of  the  Liao-tung  Peninsula, 
the  key  to  Peking,  and  though  the  blow  was  a 
heavy  one  to  the  aspirations  of  Japan,  she 
bowed  down  to  humiliation,  with  the  one 
thought  that  she  would  take  her  score  later. 
The  defeat  of  Russia  and  Germany,  the  two 
main  Powers  which  took  an  active  part  in  the 
ratification  of  the  Chefoo  treaty,  has  since 
paved  the  way  for  the  Japanese  control  of 
Port  Arthur  and  Peking,  at  the  same  time  wip- 
ing out  the  humiliation  that  these  two  Powers 
forced  Japan  to  undergo  in  1895,  when  she  was 
still  an  embryo  military  State. 

In  the  previous  chapter  it  was  stated  that 
on  the  evening  of  January  18,  1915,  Mr. 
Hioki,  Japanese  Ambassador  to  Peking,  called 
upon  President  Yuan  Shi-Kai  and  presented 
to  him  a  document  containing  the  most  sweep- 
ing and  drastic  measures.  The  following, 
which  is  an  oflScially  verified  translation  of  the 
identical  note  presented  to  the  President  of 
China  by  the  Japanese  Minister  on  that  date, 
will  best  show  the  reader  just  how  far  the 
dream  of  the  domination  of  China  is  outlined 
by  Japan. 

185 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Group  I.  The  Japanese  Government  and  the 
Chinese  Government,  being  desirous  of  maintain- 
ing the  peace  of  Eastern  Asia  and  of  further 
strengthening  the  friendly  relations  existing  be- 
tween the  two  neighboring  nations,  agree  to  the 
following  Articles :  — 

Article  I.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees 
that  when  the  Japanese  Government  hereafter 
approaches  the  German  Government  for  the  trans- 
fer of  all  rights  and  privileges  of  whatsoever  nature 
enjoyed  by  Germany  in  the  Province  of  Shantung, 
whether  secured  by  Treaty  or  in  any  other  manner, 
China  shall  give  her  full  assent  thereto. 

Article  II.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees 
that  within  the  Province  of  Shantung  and  along 
its  sea  border  no  territory  or  island  or  land  of  any 
name  or  nature  shall  be  ceded  or  leased  to  any  third 
Power. 

Article  III.  The  Chinese  Government  consents 
to  Japan  building  a  railway  from  Chef oo  or  Lung- 
chau  to  join  the  Tsinan-Kiaochow  Railway. 

Article  IV.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees 
that  for  the  sake  of  trade  and  for  the  residence  of 
foreigners  certain  important  places  shall  be  speedily 
opened  in  the  Province  of  Shantung  as  treaty  ports, 
such  necessary  places  to  be  jointly  decided  upon 
by  the  two  Governments  by  separate  agreement. 

Group  II.  The  Japanese  Government  and  the 
Chinese  Government,  since  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment has  always  acknowledged  the  specially  favor- 
able position  enjoyed  by  Japan  in  South  Man- 
churia and  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia,  agree  to 
the  following  Articles:  — 

186 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

Article  I.  The  two  contracting  Powers  mutu- 
ally agree  that  the  term  of  lease  of  Port  Arthur  and 
Dalny  and  the  term  of  lease  of  the  South  Man- 
churia and  Antung-Mukden  Railways  shall  be 
extended  to  the  period  of  ninety-nine  years. 

Article  II.  Japanese  subjects  in  South  Man- 
churia and  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia  in  erecting 
buildings  for  the  purpose  of  trade  and  manufacture 
or  for  farming  shall  have  the  right  to  lease  or  own 
land  so  required. 

Article  III.  Japanese  subjects  shall  be  free  to 
reside  and  travel  in  South  Manchuria  and  Eastern 
Inner  Mongolia  and  to  engage  in  business  and  in 
manufacture  of  any  kind  whatsoever. 

Article  IV.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees  to 
grant  Japanese  subjects  the  right  of  opening  all 
mines  in  South  Manchuria  and  Eastern  Inner 
Mongolia,  such  mining  places  to  be  jointly  decided 
upon  by  the  two  Governments. 

Article  V.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees 
that  in  respect  of  the  two  following  subjects  men- 
tioned herein  below  the  Japanese  Government's 
consent  shall  be  first  obtained  before  action  shall 
be  taken :  — 

(a)  Whenever  permission  is  granted  to  the  sub- 
ject of  a  third  Power  to  build  a  railway  or  make  a 
loan  with  a  third  Power  for  the  purpose  of  building 
a  railway  in  South  Manchuria  and  Eastern  Inner 
Mongolia. 

(b)  Whenever  a  loan  is  to  be  made  with  a  third 
Power  pledging  the  local  taxes  of  South  Manchuria 
and  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia  as  security. 

Article  VI.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees 

187 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

that  if  the  Chinese  Government  in  South  Man- 
churia or  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia  employs  advisers 
or  instructors  for  political,  financial,  or  military 
purposes  the  Japanese  shall  first  be  consulted. 

Article  VII.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees 
that  the  control  and  administration  of  the  Kirin- 
Changchau  Railway  shall  be  handed  over  to  the 
Japanese  Government  to  take  effect  on  the  signing 
of  this  agreement,  the  term  to  last  for  ninety-nine 
years. 

Group  III.  The  Japanese  Government  and  the 
Chinese  Government,  seeing  that  Japanese  finan- 
ciers and  the  Hanyehping  Company  have  close 
relations  with  each  other  at  present,  and  also  desir- 
ing that  the  common  interests  of  the  two  nations 
shall  be  advanced,  agree  to  the  following  Articles : 

Article  I.  The  two  contracting  Powers  mutu- 
ally agree  that  when  the  opportune  moment  arrives 
the  Hanyehping  Company  shall  be  made  a  joint 
concern  of  the  two  nations  and  they  further  agree 
that  without  the  previous  consent  of  Japan,  China 
shall  not  by  her  own  act  dispose  of  the  rights  and 
property  of  whatsoever  nature  of  the  Hanyehping 
Company,  nor  cause  the  said  Company  to  dispose 
freely  of  the  same. 

Article  IL  The  Chinese  Government  agrees 
that  all  mines  in  the  neighborhood  of  those  owned 
by  '^the  Hanyehping  Company  shall  not  be  per- 
mitted without  the  consent  of  the  said  Company, 
to  be  worked  by  other  persons  outside  of  the  said 
Company,  and  further  agrees  that  if  it  is  desired  to 
carry  out  any  undertaking  which  it  is  apprehended 
may  directly  or  indirectly  affect  the  interests  of  the 

188 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

said  Company  the  consent  of  the  said  Company 
shall  first  be  obtained. 

Geoup  IV.  The  Japanese  Government  and  the 
Chinese  Government  with  the  object  of  effectively 
protecting  the  territorial  integrity  of  China  agree 
to  the  following  special  Article :  — 

The  Chinese  Government  agrees  that  no  island, 
port,  and  harbor  along  the  coast  shall  be  ceded  or 
leased  to  any  third  Power. 

Geoup  V.  Aeticle  I.  The  Chinese  Central 
Government  shall  employ  influential  Japanese  as 
advisers  in  political,  financial,  and  military  affairs. 

Aeticle  II.  In  the  interior  of  China,  Japanese 
shall  have  the  right  to  ownership  of  land  for  the 
building  of  Japanese  hospitals,  churches,  and 
schools. 

Aeticle  III.  Since  the  Japanese  Government 
and  the  Chinese  Government  have  had  many  cases 
of  dispute  between  the  Japanese  and  Chinese  police 
to  settle,  cases  which  cause  no  inconsiderable  mis- 
understanding, it  is  for  this  reason  necessary  that 
the  police  departments  of  important  places  (in 
China)  shall  be  jointly  administered  (by  Japanese 
and  Chinese)  or  that  the  (Chinese)  police  depart- 
ment of  these  places  shall  employ  numerous  Japa- 
nese for  the  purpose  of  organizing  and  improving 
the  Chinese  police  service. 

Aeticle  IV.  China  shall  purchase  from  Japan  a 
fixed  ratio  of  the  quantity  of  munitions  of  war  (say 
fifty  per  cent  or  more),  or  Japan  shall  establish  in 
China  a  jointly  worked  arsenal,  Japanese  technical 
experts  to  be  employed  and  Japanese  material  to 
be  purchased. 

189 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Aeticle  V.  China  agrees  to  grant  to  Japan  the 
right  of  constructing  a  railway  connecting  Wu- 
chang with  Kiu-kiang  and  Nan-chang.  Also  a  line 
between  Nan-chang  and  Hang-chow,  and  a  line 
between  Nan-chang  and  Chao-chow. 

Article  VI.  China  agrees  that  in  the  Province 
of  Fu-kien  Japan  shall  have  the  right  to  work  mines 
and  build  railways  and  to  construct  harbor  works 
(including  dockyards),  and  in  case  of  employing 
foreign  capital  Japan  shall  be  first  consulted. 

Article  VIL  China  agrees  that  Japanese  sub- 
jects shall  have  the  right  to  propagate  religious 
doctrines  in  China. 

While  Japan  had  desired  not  to  make  the 
note  of  demands  public,  and  had  warned  China 
that  dire  results  would  follow  if  she  made 
known  to  outsiders  the  negotiations,  reports  of 
the  demands,  in  some  way  or  other,  as  such  acts 
of  secrecy  do,  gradually  crept  out,  and  in  a 
short  time  they  were  known  to  the  whole  world. 

So  drastic  were  the  Japanese  demands,  once 
they  became  known  abroad,  the  Powers  com- 
menced to  dispatch  oflScial  inquiries  to  the 
Tokyo  Government,  which  in  turn  sent  back 
the  following  interpretation  of  the  demands. 
The  reader  is  asked  kindly  to  compare  the 
copy  of  the  original  Japanese  demands  with 
the  seemingly  little  trivial  communique  that 

190 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

was  dispatched  by  the  Japanese  Government 
to  the  Powers  and  which  was  as  follows:  — 

I.  In  relation  to  the  Province  of  Shantung :  — 

1.  Engagement  on  the  part  of  China  to  consent 
to  all  matters  that  may  be  agreed  upon  between 
Japan  and  Germany  with  regard  to  the  disposition 
of  all  rights,  interests,  concessions  which,  in  virtue 
of  treaties  or  otherwise,  Germany  possesses  in 
relation  to  the  Province  of  Shantung. 

2.  Engagement  not  to  alienate  or  lease  upon  any 
pretext  the  Province  of  Shantung,  or  any  portion 
thereof,  or  any  island  lying  near  the  coast  of  the 
said  province. 

3.  Grant  to  Japan  the  right  of  construction  of  a 
railway  connecting  Chefoo  or  Lungkow  and  the 
Tsinan-Kiaochow  Railway. 

II.  In  relation  to  South  Manchuria  and  Eastern 
Inner  Mongolia:  — 

1.  Extension  of  the  terms  of  the  lease  of  Kwang- 
tung,  the  South  Manchuria  and  the  Antung- 
Mukden  Railway. 

2.  (a)  Acquisition  by  the  Japanese  of  the  right 
of  residence  and  ownership  of  land.  (6)  Grant  to 
Japan  of  the  mining  rights  of  the  mines  specified  by 
Japan. 

3.  Obligation  on  the  part  of  China  to  obtain  in 
advance  the  consent  of  Japan  before  she  grants 
railway  concessions  to  any  third  Power,  procures 
the  supply  of  capital  from  any  Power  for  the  con- 
struction of  a  railway,  or  raises  from  any  third 
Power  a  loan  on  security  of  any  duties  or  taxes. 

4.  Obligation  on  the  part  of  China  to  consult 

191 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Japan  before  employing  advisers  or  tutors  regard- 
ing political,  j&nancial,  or  military  matters. 

5.  Transfer  of  the  management  and  control  of 
the  Kirin-Changchau  Railway  to  Japan. 

III.  Agreement  in  principle  that  at  an  opportune 
moment  in  the  future  the  Hanyehping  Company 
shall  be  placed  under  Japanese  and  Chinese 
cooperation. 

IV.  Engagement,  in  accordance  with  the  princi- 
ple of  maintenance  of  the  territorial  integrity  of 
China,  not  to  alienate  or  lease  any  ports  or  bays  on, 
or  any  island  near,  the  coast  of  China. 

In  other  words,  Japan,  when  pressed  by  the 
United  States  and  the  other  Powers  as  to  her 
intentions  in  China,  stated  that  the  demands 
then  under  negotiation  were  ten  in  number  and 
that  the  other  eleven  so-called  demands,  of 
which  the  Powers  had  received  reports,  were 
not  demands  at  all,  but  only  requests.  The 
actions  of  the  Japanese  Government  during 
the  following  negotiations  at  Peking  proved 
the  above  statement,  relative  to  the  eleven 
"requests,"  not  to  be  true. 

But  with  all  the  publicity  that  had  been 
thrown  upon  the  twenty-one  demands,  Japan 
continued  to  press  the  negotiations,  threaten- 
ing China  with  force  if  she  did  not  agree  to 

192 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

them.  The  question  at  length  dragged  into 
the  month  of  April  with  more  than  twenty-five 
meetings  of  the  Japanese  Ambassador  and  the 
Chinese  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs. 

Great  Britain  by  this  time  was  stirred  up 
over  the  matter,  and  especially  in  the  indus- 
trial cities,   such    as    Manchester,   were  the 
Peking  negotiations  invested  with  tremendous 
importance.     Likewise    did    the    commercial 
interests  of  Great  Britain,  having  an  invest- 
ment in  the  Yangtze  Valley  and  other  sections 
of  more  than  400,000,000  pounds  sterling,  in- 
quire into  the  Japanese  demands  upon  Peking. 
The  British  Parliament  was   constantly  re- 
minded by  questions  of  its  members  that  the 
people  should  be  told  exactly  what  was  hap- 
pening in  the  Far  East.  In  reply  to  these  ques- 
tions Premier  Asquith  told  of  the  messages 
that  had  been  forwarded  to  him  from  Tokyo, 
all  of  which  were  very  meager  and  did  not 
touch  at  all  the  demands  that  Japan  was  at- 
tempting to  force  China  to  accede  to.   Nor  in 
his  parliamentary  addresses  did  Premier  As- 
quith refer  to  the  note  of  alarm  which  the 
British  and  Russian  Ambassadors  at  Tokyo 

193 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

had  presented  to  Baron  Kato,  the  Japanese 
Foreign  Minister,  the  latter  part  of  March. 

The  note  presented  to  the  Tokyo  Govern- 
ment by  the  representatives  of  the  two  Powers 
informed  the  Japanese  Foreign  Minister  that, 
"If  Japan  persists  in  pressing  its  demands  on 
China  beyond  those  contained  in  the  original 
communication  to  the  Powers,  it  will  be  diffi- 
cult for  Japan's  allies  to  negotiate  diplomati- 
cally with  her  in  the  future." 

It  was  not  until  the  last  week  in  April,  how- 
ever, that  anything  definite  was  realized  by 
Japan  relative  to  her  demands  upon  Peking. 
During  that  period  China  had  agreed  to  the 
first  paragraph  of  Article  I  of  the  demands,  but 
still  held  back  on  the  others  of  that  clause. 
As  South  Manchuria  has  been  a  part  of  the 
Japanese  nation  in  all  but  name  for  the  last  ten 
years,  China  practically  conceded  all  of  Group 
II  to  Japan. 

As  to  the  other  groups  of  the  demands  China 
refused  to  listen,  and  no  form  of  parleying  by 
Mr.  Hioki  would  seemingly  move  Peking  from 
its  viewpoint.  Mr.  Hioki  then  resorted  to 
stratagems,  to  make  China  appear  technically 

194 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

wrong  on  several  points.  In  this  way  a  pre- 
text could  be  raised  for  requiring  China  by- 
force  to  accede  to  all  of  the  demands. 

On  this  point  China  held  ground,  realizing 
that  with  her  sovereignty  threatened,  she 
could  ill  afford  to  play  a  foolish  role  in  the 
matter.  And  with  the  matter  thus  deadlocked, 
with  the  negotiations  practically  at  a  stand- 
still, Japan  found  herseK  in  a  serious  position. 

The  negotiations  were  daily  getting  more 
publicity,  something  that  Japan  had  tried  to 
guard  against;  truth  was  constantly  finding 
the  light  and  forcing  Japan  into  a  backward 
position.  In  order  not  to  alarm  the  Powers  and 
to  reveal  the  diplomacy  that  she  had  been 
practicing,  Japan  found  only  one  course  open. 
That  was  to  continue  to  keep  secret  the  docu- 
ments that  would  reveal  the  whole  truth  of 
the  Peking  negotiations,  at  the  same  time 
distributing  throughout  the  world  her  own 
description  of  the  matter  —  a  description  na- 
turally favorable  to  Japan. 

In  the  mean  time  British  commercial  agents 
in  China  had  been  forwarding  to  London  re- 
ports of  the  negotiations  as  gathered  at  Peking. 

195 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Especially  did  the  demands  under  Group  III 
and  V  receive  their  condemnation.  It  will  be 
noted  that  these  demands,  the  most  drastic  of 
the  twenty-one,  were  the  ones  that  Japan  had 
taken  special  pains  to  see  were  not  included  in 
her  official  report  of  the  matter  to  the  Powers. 

Now  the  district  about  Hankow,  where  are 
located  the  Hanyehping  mines,  being  one  of 
the  wealthiest  mineral  districts  in  the  world, 
and  possessing  iron  as  well  as  coal  and  lime 
pockets,  all  the  ingredients  in  the  making  of 
iron  and  steel,  Japan  realized  that  it  was  of 
great  importance  that  she  should  take  control 
of  this  mining  concession  if  she  was  to  have  the 
steel  for  military  equipment  which  is  highly 
essential  if  she  is  to  become  one  of  the  domi- 
nating Powers  of  the  world.  And  Japan  at 
present,  having  to  import  more  than  seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  iron  and  steel  she  uses, 
looked  upon  the  Hanyehping  mines  as  a  ne- 
cessity. 

That  the  reader  may  better  understand  the 
Japanese  demands  made  upon  China  embodied 
in  Group  V  of  the  twenty-one  demands,  I  ask 
that  he  imagine  Mexico  a  civilized  Power  — 

196 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

that  is,  where  mUitary  matters  are  concerned; 
that  he  imagine  the  United  States,  not  as  the 
Power  that  she  is,  but  just  a  big  nation,  teem- 
ing with  people,  peaceful  in  their  pursuits,  and 
attempting  gradually  to  rise  from  a  form  of 
semi-civilization  to  that  of  a  nation  of  unlim- 
ited possibilities. 

Then  some  fine  day,  out  of  a  clear  sky,  while 
the  United  States  is  busy  toiling,  imagine 
Mexico  suddenly  hurling  at  our  country  a  note 
in  which  she  asks  of  the  United  States:  That 
it  appoint  Mexican  advisers  in  political  and 
financial  affairs  as  well  as  in  all  military  mat- 
ters; that  the  United  States  employ  Mexican 
policemen  in  its  departments  in  New  York 
City,  Philadelphia,  Washington,  Boston,  and 
the  other  large  centers  of  its  country  for  the 
purpose  of  organizing  and  improving  the  police 
service  of  the  country;  that  the  United  States 
buy  fifty  per  cent  of  her  munitions  of  war  from 
Mexico,  or  that  there  be  established  an  arsenal 
jointly  worked  by  both  nations,  Mexican  tech- 
nical experts  to  be  employed  and  the  material 
to  be  purchased  likewise  from  Mexico;. —  in 
other  words,  that  Mexico  should  have  complete 

197 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

control  of  the  military  aflFairs  of  the  United 
States. 

If  such  a  thing  came  about  in  the  United 
States,  would  it  be  considered  an  action  tend- 
ing toward  the  "peace  of  North  America"? 
Yet  this  is  exactly  what  Japan  has  attempted 
to  foist  upon  China. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  China  re- 
fused to  consider  the  demands  that  deprived 
her  absolutely  of  sovereignty.  Japan,  realiz- 
ing that  she  excelled  China  in  perseverance, 
still  hung  to  her  point,  hoping  the  latter  would 
weaken. 

But  China  held,  and  as  publicity  on  the 
negotiations  was  constantly  gaining  headway 
abroad,  Japan  slackened  her  course  with  the 
following  set  of  modified  demands  delivered  at 
Peking  on  April  26:  — 

Group  I.  The  Japanese  Government  and  the 
Chinese  Government,  being  desirous  of  maintain- 
ing the  peace  of  Eastern  Asia  and  of  further 
strengthening  the  friendly  relations  existing  be- 
tween the  two  neighboring  nations,  agree  to  the 
following  Articles :  — 

Article  I.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees 
that  when  the  Japanese  Government  hereafter  ap- 

198 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

preaches  the  German  Government  for  the  transfer 
of  all  rights  and  privileges  of  whatsoever  nature 
enjoyed  by  Germany  in  the  Province  of  Shantung, 
whether  secured  by  treaty  or  in  any  other  manner, 
China  shall  give  her  full  assent  thereto. 

Article  II.  The  Chinese  Government  engages 
that  within  the  Province  of  Shantung  and  along  its 
sea  border  no  territory  or  island  or  land  of  any 
name  or  nature  shall  be  ceded  or  leased  to  any  third 
Power. 

Article  III.  The  Chinese  Government  consents 
that  as  regards  the  railways  to  be  built  by  China 
herself  from  Chefoo  or  Lung-chau  to  connect  with 
the  Tsinan-Kiaochow  Railway,  if  Germany  is  will- 
ing to  abandon  the  privilege  of  financing  the  said 
lines,  China  will  approach  Japanese  capitalists  to 
negotiate  for  a  loan. 

Article  IV.  The  Chinese  Government  engages, 
in  the  interest  of  trade  and  for  the  residence  of  for- 
eigners, to  open  by  herself  as  soon  as  possible  cer- 
tain suitable  places  in  the  Province  of  Shantung, 
as  commercial  ports. 

The  Following  to  be  the  Subject  of  an 
Exchange  of  Notes 

The  places  which  ought  to  be  opened  are  to  be 
chosen  and  the  regulations  to  be  drafted  by  the 
Chinese  Government,  but  the  Japanese  Minister 
must  be  consulted  before  making  a  decision. 

Group  II.  The  Chinese  Government  and  the 
Japanese  Government,  with  a  view  to  developing 
their  economic  relations  in  South  Manchuria  and 

199 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Eastern  Inner  Mongolia,  agree  on  the  following 
Articles :  — 

Article  I.  The  two  contracting  Powers  mutu- 
ally agree  that  the  term  of  lease  of  Port  Arthur  and 
Dalny  and  the  term  of  lease  of  the  South  Man- 
churia and  Antung-Mukden  Railways  shall  be  ex- 
tended to  the  period  of  ninety-nine  years. 

Article  II.  Japanese  subjects  in  South  Man- 
churia may  lease  or  purchase  necessary  land  for 
erecting  suitable  buildings  for  trade  and  manufac- 
ture or  for  prosecuting  agricultural  enterprises. 

Article  III.  Japanese  subjects  shall  be  free  to 
reside  and  travel  in  South  Manchuria  and  to  en- 
gage in  business  and  in  manufacture  of  any  kind 
whatsoever. 

The  Japanese  subjects  referred  to  in  the  preced- 
ing two  articles  besides  being  required  to  register 
with  local  authorities  passports,  which  they  musrt 
procure  under  the  existing  regulations,  shall  also 
observe  police  laws  and  ordinances  and  tax  regula- 
tions which  are  approved  by  the  Japanese  Consul. 

Civil  and  criminal  cases  in  which  the  defendants 
are  Japanese  shall  be  tried  and  adjudicated  by  the 
Japanese  Consul;  those  in  which  the  defendants  are 
Chinese  shall  be  tried  and  adjudicated  by  Chinese 
authorities.  In  either  instance  the  authorities  on 
the  plaintiff  side  can  send  a  delegate  to  attend  the 
proceedings;  but  mixed  civil  cases  between  Chinese 
and  Japanese  relating  to  land  shall  be  tried  and 
adjudicated  by  the  delegates  of  both  nations  con- 
jointly in  accordance  with  Chinese  law  and  local 
usage.  When  the  judicial  period  in  the  said  region 
is  completely  reformed,  all  the  civil  and  criminal 

200 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

cases  concerning  Japanese  subjects  shall  be  tried 
entirely  by  Chinese  law  courts. 

Articles  IV,  V,  VI,  VII,  "initialed"  as  in  previ- 
ous demands. 


Relating  to  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia 

1.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees  that  when- 
ever a  loan  is  to  be  made  with  a  third  Power,  pledg- 
ing the  local  taxes  of  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia  as 
security,  China  must  negotiate  with  the  Japanese 
Government  first. 

2.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees  that  China 
will  herself  provide  funds  for  building  the  railways 
in  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia;  if  foreign  capital  is 
required  she  must  negotiate  with  the  Japanese 
Government  first. 

3.  The  Chinese  Government  agrees,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  trade  and  the  residence  of  foreigners,  to 
open  by  herself  as  soon  as  possible  certain  suitable 
places  in  Eastern  Inner  Mongolia  as  commercial 
ports.  The  places  which  ought  to  be  opened  are  to 
be  chosen  and  the  regulations  to  be  drafted  by  the 
Chinese  Government,  but  the  Japanese  Minister 
must  be  consulted  before  reaching  a  decision. 

4.  If  there  are  Japanese  and  Chinese  who  desire 
to  cooperate  in  agricultural  enterprises,  including 
incidental  manufacture,  the  Chinese  Government 
shall  forthwith  give  its  permission. 

Group  III.  The  relations  between  Japan  and 
the  Hanyehping  Company  being  very  intimate,  if 
the  said  Company  comes  to  an  agreement  with  the 
Japanese  capitalists  for  cooperation,  the  Chinese 

201 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

Government  shall  forthwith  give  its  consent 
thereto.  The  Chinese  Government  further  agrees 
that  without  the  consent  of  the  Japanese  capitalists, 
China  will  not  convert  the  company  into  a  State 
enterprise,  nor  confiscate  it  nor  cause  it  to  borrow 
and  use  foreign  capital  other  than  Japanese. 

Group  IV.  China  to  make  a  declaration  by  her- 
self in  accordance  with  the  following  principle:  No 
part  of  China's  coast,  bays,  harbors,  or  islands  shall 
be  ceded  or  leased  to  another  Power. 

Group  V.  Yangtze  Railways  —  to  be  confirmed 
by  exchange  of  notes. 

A.  As  regards  the  right  of  financing  by  loan  the 
Wu-chang-Kiu-kiang-Nan-chang  Railways,  the 
Nan-chang-Hang-chau  Railway,  and  the  Nan- 
chang-Chao-chau  Railway,  if  it  is  clearly  ascer- 
tained that  other  Powers  have  no  objection  China 
shall  grant  the  said  right  to  Japan. 

B.  As  regards  the  right  of  financing  by  loan 
the  Wu-chang-Kiu-kang-Nan-chang  Railways,  the 
Nan-chang-Hang-chau  Railway,  and  the  Nan- 
chang-Chao-chau  Railway,  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment shall  promise  not  to  grant  the  said  right  to 
any  foreign  Power  before  Japan  comes  to  an  under- 
standing with  the  Power  which  is  heretofore  inter- 
ested therein. 

Fu-KlEN 

(By  exchange  of  notes.) 

The  Chinese  Government  agrees' that  no  Power 
shall  be  permitted  to  establish  along  the  coast  of 
Fu-kien  dockyards,  a  coaling  station  for  military 
use,  or  a  naval  base;  nor  will  any  other  installations 

^02 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

for  military  purposes  be  permitted.  The  Chinese 
Government  fm*ther  agrees  that  China  will  not  use 
foreign  capital  to  put  up  by  herself  the  above- 
mentioned  establishments  or  installations. 

The  Chinese  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  stated 
as  follows:  — 

1.  The  Chinese  Government  shall,  whenever  in 
future  it  considers  this  step  necessary,  engage 
numerous  Japanese  advisers. 

2.  Whenever  in  future  Japanese  subjects  desire 
to  lease  or  purchase  land  in  the  interior  of  China  for 
establishing  schools  or  hospitals,  the  Chinese  Gov- 
ernment shall  forthwith  give  its  consent  thereto. 

3.  When  a  suitable  opportunity  arises  in  the  fu- 
ture, the  Chinese  Government  will  send  military 
officers  to  Japan  to  negotiate  with  Japanese  mili- 
tary authorities  the  matter  of  purchasing  arms  or 
that  of  establishing  joint  arsenals. 

Mr.  Hioki,  the  Japanese  Ambassador,  stated  as 
follows :  — 

As  related  to  the  question  of  propagating  religion 
(Buddhism)  the  same  shall  be  taken  up  again  for 
negotiation  in  the  future. 

The  modified  demands,  while  eliminating 
many  of  the  drastic  measm*es  of  the  preceding 
document,  still  humiliated  China  by  infringing 
upon  her  national  rights  and  sovereignty. 
While  Mr.  Hioki  had  intimated  to  Peking 
in  the  presentation  of  the  new  document  that 
an  answer  would  be  expected  at  once,  China 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

refused  to  be  coerced,  and  the  first  meeting  ad- 
journed in  less  than  an  hour  with  the  question 
appearing  very  critical  —  at  least  for  China. 

Further  discussions  were  held  on  the  de- 
mands during  the  week,  but  nothing  definite 
was  decided  upon  until  May  1,  when  China 
replied  to  the  modified  document  in  the  form  of 
a  counter-proposal,  which  it  declared  to  be  its 
final  oflfer.  In  this  proposal  China  recognized 
Japanese  rights  of  residence,  of  carrying  on 
business  or  leasing  land  in  the  unopened  dis- 
tricts of  Manchuria,  but  refused  absolutely  to 
make  long  leases,  and  demanded  that  the  Jap- 
anese should  submit  themselves  to  the  Chinese 
police,  pay  the  same  taxes  as  the  Chinese,  like- 
wise submitting  all  land  disputes  to  the  Chinese 
officials.  At  the  same  time  the  counter-pro- 
posal demanded  the  unconditional  retrocession 
of  Kiaochow  and  the  participation  of  the  Pe- 
king Government  in  the  peace  negotiations  be- 
tween Germany  and  Japan.  Further,  China 
intimated  that  this  counter-proposal  was  her 
final  word  on  the  demands. 

Japan,  more  than  gratified  with  what  she 
had  already  received  from  China  as  to  the  de- 

d04 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

mands,  but  eager  for  more,  then  assumed  a 
more  peaceful  attitude  on  the  matter,  and  wish- 
ing to  avoid  further  comphcations  decided  to 
separate  Group  V  from  the  original  demands, 
but  specified  in  her  note  that  the  demands  so 
dropped  should  be  left  over  for  "future  dis- 
cussion." In  this,  Japan  made  it  known  that 
she  expected  at  some  future  date  to  fulfill  at 
every  point  her  ambition  to  dominate  the 
Celestial  Kingdom. 

On  May  6,  instructions  were  forwarded  from 
Tokyo  to  Peking,  asking  the  Japanese  Ambas- 
sador to  inform  the  Chinese  Government  that  a 
reply  to  the  Japanese  note  was  desired  at  once. 

While  the  above  was  under  way,  things  were 
taking  on  a  more  serious  aspect  at  Tokyo. 
Fearing  that  China  would  checkmate  the  am- 
bitions of  Japan,  the  latter  decided  to  prepare 
for  a  coup  and  to  win  her  desires,  if  necessary,  by 
force.  General  Oka,  Minister  for  War,  at  once 
conferred  with  General  Akashi,  Vice-Chief  of 
the  General  StaflF,  and  in  a  few  hours  Japan 
was  mobilizing  its  war  fleet  as  well  as  troops,  in 
preparation  for  an  invasion  of  China.  The 
Thirteenth  Division  and  the  South  Manchu- 

205 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

rian  Guards  at  Mukden  and  Liaoyang  immedi- 
ately took  on  war  preparations  for  contending 
with  the  Chinese  Twenty-Seventh  and  Twenty- 
Eighth  Divisions,  while  in  Shantung  the  ad- 
vance guard  of  the  Japanese  troops  in  Kiao- 
chow  moved  to  Weicheng,  confronting  the 
Chinese  Fifth  Division.  The  Japanese  cruisers 
Suwo  and  Sagami,  which  had  been  lying  in 
Chinhai  Bay,  Korea,  were  given  orders  for  full 
speed  ahead  to  the  Gulf  of  Chihli,  there  to  pick 
up  the  Japanese  Ambassador  and  to  bring 
him  safely  back  to  Japan.  Likewise  did  the 
first,  second,  and  third  Japanese  squadrons 
begin  coaling  at  Sascho  and  Kure. 

War  seemed  inevitable  to  Japan.  To  China 
the  question  was  different,  for  'being  in  no 
position  to  contend  against  Japan,  she  real- 
ized that  if  war  came  about,  it  would  require 
scarcely  two  days  for  Japan  to  take  China. 

However,  as  to  Japan's  note.  President 
Yuan  Shi-Kai  found  the  opinion  of  his  Presi- 
dential Board  divided.  The  discussion  was 
heated,  and  no  conclusion  was  reached,  with 
the  result  that  on  Friday,  May  7,  there  was 
received  in  Peking  an  ultimatum  from  Tokyo 

206 


THE  PASSING  OF  CHINA 

in  which  China  was  given  forty-eight  hours  to 
accede  to  the  demands  or  serious  action  would 
be  taken. 

With  Japanese  troops  secretly  moving  about 
China  on  a  war  footing,  with  Japanese  resi- 
dents at  Hankow,  Mukden,  and  other  cen- 
ters, packing  their  belongings  and  preparing 
to  move  to  the  seacoast,  Peking  could  do  but 
one  thing — hope  for  the  intervention  of  some 
other  Power.  That  help  not  arriving,  China 
was  forced  to  agree  to  the  Japanese  demands, 
and  at  half-past  1  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
Sunday,  May  9,  China,  the  oldest  nation  in 
the  world,  passed  under  the  virtual  domina- 
tion of  Japan. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  RESTORATION  OF  KIAOCHOW 

Of  the  siege  of  Tsingtau  and  the  events  that 
followed  its  surrender,  but  one  more  question 
remains.  That  is  in  regard  to  the  final  restora- 
tion of  the  once  German  protectorate. 

Regardless  of  the  inconsistent  statements  of 
Count  Okuma  on  August  24,  1914,  relative  to 
eventual  restoration,  and  that  of  Baron  Kato 
on  December  8,  1914,  in  the  Diet  House  at 
Tokyo,  alluded  to  in  a  previous  chapter,  Kiao- 
chow  and  the  Chinese  Province  of  Shantung 
will  probably  become  a  Japanese  sphere  of  in- 
fluence after  the  close  of  Japanese  peace  nego- 
tiations with  Germany. 

In  presenting  her  modified  demands  of  April 
26  at  Peking,  Japan  stated  that  as  the  seizure 
of  Kiaochow  had  forced  her  to  make  a  heavy 
sacrifice,  in  both  men  and  money,  the  latter 
was  willing  to  restore  the  once  German  protec- 
torate to  China,  providing  the  Peking  Govern- 
ment would  in  turn  agree  that:  — 

208 


RESTORATION  OF  KIAOCHOW 

(1)  Kiaochow  Bay  shall  be  opened  as  a  commer- 
cial port. 

(2)  A  settlement  for  exclusive  Japanese  use  shall 
be  created  in  Tsingtau  at  a  place  to  be  indi- 
cated by  Japan. 

(3)  If  the  Powers  so  desire,  a  foreign  settlement 
shall  be  established  in  Tsingtau. 

(4)  The  disposal  of  German  structures  and  prop- 
erties shall  be  arranged  between  Japan  and 
Germany,  China  taking  no  part  in  the 
negotiations. 

In  the  last  clause  enumerated  above,  Japan 
has  made  preparation  for  the  final  restoration 
of  Kiaochow  —  in  name  only  —  to  China. 
When  the  peace  negotiations  between  Ger- 
many and  Japan  are  brought  up  for  discussion, 
Japan  intends  evidently  to  hold  to  her  con- 
tention that  the  Shantung  railroad  is  a  Berlin 
Government  concern,  and  not  a  Chinese-Ger- 
man private  property,  as  the  Peking  Govern- 
ment knows  it  to  be.  China  having  no  voice 
in  the  peace  negotiations,  and  with  Germany 
in  no  position  to  dispute  Japan's  claim,  the 
Shantung  railroad  will  pass  into  the  hands  of 
the  Nipponese  Government.  With  this  conces- 
sion will  also  go  the  right  to  station  Japanese 
troops  along  the  railroad  right  of  way  to  pro- 

^09 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

tect  the  property,  and  gradually  the  Province 
of  Shantung  will^ass  from  Chinese  or  German 
influence  to  Japanese  influence.  Shantung  will 
follow  exactly  in  the  footsteps  of  Manchm'ia 
and  under  the  Japanese  system  of  freight  re- 
bates for  Japanese  shippers,  such  as  has  been 
practiced  in  Manchuria,  Kiaochow,  the  birth- 
place of  the  Chinese  nation,  the  home  of  the 
Celestial  philosopher,  Confucius,  will  have  be- 
come a  part  of  the  working  Empire  of  Japan. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  ENIGMA  AMONG  NATIONS 

Recent  dispatches  from  Peking,  disclosing 
the  probabiHty  that  President  Yuan  Shi-Kai 
will  do  away  with  the  republican  form  of  gov- 
ernment and  proclaim  himself  Emperor,  have 
again  brought  to  the  front  the  question  of  the 
future  of  China.  In  Washington,  the  disap- 
pearance of  the  new  Far  Eastern  Republic 
would  be  viewed  with  regret,  for  it  was  hoped 
that  it  would  be  the  forerunner  of  other  re- 
publics in  Asia. 

'  However,  those  who  seek  for  the  reasons  for 
China's  instability  and  inability  to  grasp  in  a 
big  sense  the  liberal  ideas  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, will  find  that  upon  the  Powers,  as  agents 
of  civilization,  does  much  of  the  responsibility 
lie.  China  has  been  not  unlike  an  old  and  heir- 
less millionaire,  who  becoming  unconscious 
suddenly  awakes  on  his  sick-bed  to  find  him- 
self beset  on  all  sides  by  supposed  relatives, 
who,  under  the  guise  of  administering  to  his 

211 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

wants,  have  made  arrangements  for  the  signing 
of  his  will  and  his  burial.  Too  much  attention 
to  the  division  of  China's  wealth  and  too  little 
attention  to  her  wants,  her  needs,  —  that  is 
the  main  reason  for  the  conditions  in  China 
to-day. 

It  is  but  a  little  more  than  fifty  years  since 
trade  agents,  seeking  for  new  fields  and  new 
markets,  discovered  the  Celestial  Kingdom 
basking  in  a  civilization  centuries  old.  When 
the  Western  Nations  learned  of  that  ancient 
empire  in  the  East,  of  its  vast  territory,  of  its 
mountains  and  their  apparently  inexhaustible 
supplies  of  minerals,  there  was  a  rush  to  the 
El  Dorado  of  the  Far  East.  The  Powers  first 
drugged  China  with  opium,  and  then  bit  by  bit 
they  leased,  stole,  or  reserved  for  themselves 
the  best  of  the  country. 

In  vain  did  China  seek  to  comprehend  this 
so-called  civilization  of  the  Occident.  By  1897, 
when  the  Germans  sailed  into  the  Bay  of  Kiao- 
chow  and  to  the  salute  of  twenty-one  guns 
proclaimed  the  territory  part  of  the  Kaiser's 
domain,  the  Chinese  were  seething  with  revolt 
against   the   "foreign    devils"   who   violated 

212 


THE  ENIGMA  AMONG  NATIONS 

every  right  and  who  paid  no  attention  to  their 
ancestral  worship  or  any  of  their  customs. 

The  Boxer  RebeUion  and  the  siege  of  Peking 
are  now  an  old  story.  It  was  the  ancient 
China's  last  cry  against  extinction  as  a  sover- 
eign people. 

With  the  end  of  that  revolt,  China  awakened, 
opened  her  eyes,  but  still  reposed  on  the  couch 
of  the  immemorial  civilization  of  her  fore- 
fathers. It  was  apparent  that  one  more  shak- 
ing of  the  land  was  needed  to  arouse  her  into 
action.  When  the  Manchu  dynasty  was  over- 
thrown in  the  revolution  of  1911  and  the  mon- 
archical form  of  government  had  been  replaced 
by  that  of  a  republic,  the  European  Powers 
chafed  in  their  greediness  and  deceit,  fearful 
lest  China,  with  its  four  hundred  and  fifty  mil- 
lions of  people,  might  get  the  new  government 
into  working  order,  before  they  could  strip  her 
of  her  riches. 

The  European  Powers  have  been  busy  keep- 
ing wars  and  revolutions  in  motion  on  Chinese 
soil,  hoping  that  China  could  not  find  herself. 
The  turmoil  in  China  since  the  breaking-out  of 
the  European  war,  and  the  recent  twenty-one 

213 


THE  FALL  OF  TSINGTAU 

demands  of  Japan  upon  Peking,  are  but  sam- 
ples of  how  "friendly"  Powers  take  advantage 
of  the  weakness  of  the  New  China.  Is  it  to  be 
wondered  at,  then,  that  the  land  of  the  pagoda, 
in  an  attempt  to  regain  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  its  former  days,  and  to  do  away  with 
the  harassing  of  the  Powers,  should  again  turn 
to  an  Emperor  and  an  imperial  form  of  govern- 
ment? 

One  fact,  however,  stands  clearly  out  in  the 
situation  of  China  to-day.  It  has  reversed  the 
experience  of  history.  Other  great  nations, 
once  they  have  reached  the  apex  of  their  civili- 
zation, have  deteriorated  and  at  length  have 
been  all  but  swallowed  up  in  the  uprush  of 
other  nations.  Persia,  Athens,  Rome,  Spain, 
and  Holland  are  examples  of  this. 

Centuries  ago  the  civilization  of  China  ap- 
parently reached  its  apex,  but  the  nation,  in- 
stead of  deteriorating,  remained  at  a  standstill, 
and  there  it  has  lived  and  continues  to  live. 
To-day  we  see  the  New  China,  attempting  to 
walk,  wearing  the  mantle  of  a  more  youthful 
civilization.  To  be  sure,  its  step  is  wobbly,  but 
gains  strength  day  by  day.  Its  finances  are  in 

214 


THE  ENIGMA  AMONG  NATIONS 

better  shape  than  they  have  ever  been  in  the 
past  fifty  years.  Patriotism,  or  national  con- 
sciousness, something  which  China  has  lacked 
for  centuries,  is  awakening,  and  to-day  we  see 
the  people  united  in  boycotting  a  neighboring 
nation  that  has  heaped  insult  and  humiliation 
upon  them. 
China  is  the  enigma  of  history. 


THE  END 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .    S    .   A 


